Session 10 Report
General Summary
[session 10: 02.04.2024]
23rd of Hammermoon / Deepwinter, 1489, Year of the warrior princess
the moon is in first quarter
Living in a world with no sunlight takes its toll, but somehow, you’ve come to recognise the various shades of dim, knowing that as you walk to Geldenstag’s Rest, it is barely dawn, only folks over at the market square setting up their carts and wares. Viridian is most knowledgeable on this, having worked alongside these very people for a week or so selling her own wares. You decide it might be for the best to avoid the market square for now, not wanting to attract attention to yourselves.
Weariness gets the better of you when you arrive. Even Geldenstag’s is quiet this early in the morning, the doors locked for the night. Somewhere in the guest stables, a horse whinnies, but other than that, the street corner remains quiet. Miss Myrtle arrives to let you in, not yet clad in her customary apron but a simple robe and a shawl thrown over her dress. She’s only starting her day as well, and ushers you in before the cold joins you. She seems curious about your whereabouts, and inquires about Salvia having been gone for quite some time, but that seems to be her general state of being, always too curious for her own good. While the rest of you head to your rooms to rest, Vilu stays behind to wait for Rowan to wake up.
Miss Myrtle questions them about their intentions, alluding to perhaps something romantic between Vilu and Rowan, she has after all seen them befriend one another over the course of the couple of months they’ve stayed in Bryn Shander. Rowan is after all, a regular guest. She offers Vilu a cup of hot tea, and they wait chatting with Plotter until Rowan wakes up. You manage to surprise him, but soon he ushers you back into his room to keep any eager ears from listening in as you talk. Vilu tells him about the human sacrifices having started in Dougan’s Hole as well, as well as about the mysterious shipments and the lake monster rumours in Targos.
Rowan agrees that the shipments are shady in nature, as they have also kept eyes on them, at least to some extent. Merchant is able to tell that the shipments arriving to Targos from Bremen actually originate from Termalaine, but for some reason they attempt to muddy the waters for where they’re actually from. In the beginning the crates arrived with seals from Termalaine, but now they’re more nondescript. From Targos they seem to travel towards Bryn Shander by sled or carts.
As you chat, Rowan also shares that he’s concerned that his memory loss is still persisting - he knows he should know things, things that he has proof of writing himself, but somehow the threads of memory keep escaping him. He surmises they might have something to do with the Spellweave and Spellplague, as paladins of Torm would often pay penance of duty in order to repair damage caused by the Spellplague and other such things.
Viridian dreams of the forest, still and breathing, but heavily obscured by snow. In the midst of familiar woods, walks a magnificent creature - a frost-white moose. Massive in size, it carries its antlers like a crown, but before it, the smaller creatures of the forest hide and flee. As it walks, in its wake blooms flowers of frost, and everything slowly turns colder. Moose are known in these parts of Faerûn, always respected and feared by the wise, but you cannot decipher whether this is merely a dream or something druidic in nature. Mielikki is quiet when you ask her.
Vilu sleeps like the dead, dreaming of nothing in particular. And yet when they wake, the feeling of someone - something- else watching behind your eyes persists for a while. You shake it off.
Annie also dreams. In her dream she walks on ice, crystal clear and glass-thin. Under her feet, the sheer vastness of the dark spreads larger and wider, ever consuming. You notice that your feet are clad in metal, the heavy sound of your footsteps leaving behind a quiet cracking sound that starts getting louder the further you walk. As you try to breathe evenly, you notice how with each footstep, the ice is starting to crack, creating delicate, dangerous spiderwebs that spread out from under your sabatons. You wake up feeling uneasy.
Primrose sleeps well after a night of running and crawling around the temple.
Viridian is the first to wake next … supper, and she finds Salvia already sitting at the tavern side of the inn, nursing a hot drink. He’s clad in a soft, woolen sweater with the rising sun knitted to its front in bold, somewhat busy hand. She might have seen that same shirt worn by Dannika earlier, or then there might be more of them. Salvia looks more alert than yesterday, freshly shaved and freshly saved, and he gladly joins Viridian for a late breakfast (turnip pie for him, as he doesn’t eat meat). Viridian shows him the notes you’ve found from the temple of the Morninglord, and Salvia agrees that the tenets ought not to be anything a sunlord would require of his followers. They must be for another deity, and he offers you ask about it from the other temple in Bryn Shander that’s dedicated to Torm, Ilmater and Tyr, together known as the Triad. The Triad is an alliance of three good-aligned deities: Tyr the Maimed God, god of justice; Ilmater the Broken God, god of suffering and compassion; and Torm the True, god of duty.
When everyone joins in on the brunch, Miss Myrtle offers hot chocolate to Annie, who looks spooked and disquiet, still startled by her dream. You chat for a while, about gods and Salvia’s reasons for being in Ten-Towns - he’s been appointed as a Dawnseeker to go and investigate the lack of sun in Ten-Towns, and his monastery, The Spires of Morning in Waterdeep, has been in communication with House of The Moon, from where Primrose has been sent to investigate with him. As sun is no longer present in Icedale, the monasteries have deduced that it might be more fruitful to have a cleric of Selûne accompany a cleric of Lathander. Salvia also shares that this request has been originally made by speaker Duvessa Shane of Bryn Shander and the council of speakers, and that he originally expected help from the temple of the Morninglord. However, it seems that they are quite reluctant to help, and have been causing Salvia a headache.
You talk about the different prayer notes found in the temple of the Amaunator, and Salvia mentions that as Amaunator is the god of justice and judgement, he might be depicted using a scale or a holy book of some sort, which might help with figuring out the rest of the prayer notes. He himself is not familiar with these types of rituals, as Lathander’s beliefs are quite different, and he is not fond of associating with the Amaunator.
He also shares with you that Auril seems to be stuck in the mortal material plane, which might be why she has been pestering the Ten-Towns. He proposes deicide, although a mere mortal killing a god is likely never final - merely a hindrance. But sometimes that might be enough to stop it. You talk about the shapes Auril takes, her favoured owl shape and how sometimes, her shadow can be seen sweeping across towns as she flies over them.
Annie excuses herself to their room to sleep some more, as she is feeling quite ill. The rest of the party consider the possibilities of sending Salvia and Dannika off to Lonelywood and to Viridian’s family, as they might be able to hide them in case Salvia is in trouble. Targos is out of the question, as the lottery draws nearer and Morven seems to have a tenant already, either way. You consider Easthaven, as it seems safest bet for now. Known as one of the larger towns, they could blend in easier, and besides, Rowan mentioned that he thinks Alcor and his friends were last headed there. Salvia heads up to talk with Dannika, and you head to one of your rooms to further discuss things.
While Annie recovers, Vilu shares details about their life before coming to Bryn Shander, how they’ve left Dougan’s Hole after they started sacrificing people to Auril. For a while, you discuss their past as well as the origins of chardalyn, and whatever plots seem to be brewing in these towns. After some time, you head out to Salvia and Dannika’s shared room, and manage to catch the tail end of an argument that seems to be about money and their shared budget for the journey. You tell your plans about Easthaven sounding like a relatively safe place for the tieflings to hide, and they agree that they should probably leave Bryn Shander. Tomorrow, for first they need to pack and get ready, and it’s already past noon. And you still have a temple to ask around about Annie’s missing brother.
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