Session 11 Report
General Summary
[session 11: 14.04.2024]
23rd of Hammermoon / Deepwinter, 1489, Year of the warrior princess
the moon is in first quarter
The warmth of Geldenstag’s Rest fades as you head back out after dinnertime, Annie now back with the rest of you as you walk through the town to the Temple of the Triad, much like both Salvia and Rowan suggested. The house itself is of old stonework, sturdy and dwarven-built. Unlike the shrine in Targos, there’s no possibility for scribbling notes directly on the walls of the building, but next to the door there is a notice board, where locals may set up pleas asking for the occupant knights to help with various tasks. Most of them seem mundane, asking to find a cat or help with chopping wood, but under the notes there’s also similar notes carved into the wood itself, of various knights leaving one another messages and hellos.
You head inside, the heavy doors shut but not locked. Inside it is dim, but not supressingly dark - your footsteps echo on the cold stone floors. On each wall of the chapel you see large wall hangings and tapestries dedicated to each of the three gods of the Triad - Tyr the Maimed God, god of justice; Ilmater the Broken God, god of suffering and compassion; and Torm the True, god of duty. Tyr’s symbols include empty eyes the colour of milk, as the overgod Ao took away his eyes after he having failed to notice the theft of the Tablets of Fate. He’s known as the blind but all-seeing judge. Torm’s symbol is the armoured gauntlet you’ve seen on Alcor, as he is known as Tyr’s right hand, and the god who delivers Tyr’s justice. Ilmater’s symbols are also present, a pair of bone-white hands tied with red cord. He sought to offer aid and relief and words of comfort to those in pain, who were oppressed, or otherwise in great need.
Before long, you encounter a human man just sweeping the floors. He’s dressed down comfortably for the late hour, in a steel grey tunic that carries the symbol of Torm’s gauntlet on the front. He introduces himself as Dubhe Gawain, one of the knights of Polaris - the same group of devoted paladins as Alcor’s. However, Dubhe seems to have only a fleeting memory of Alcor - he knows that the rest of the knights have left to explore the other Ten-Towns, while he and Merak Dinádan were left behind to take care of the temple - a common habit for those who have sworn an oath to one of the Triad and have taken up the Duty of Penance. They’re known for traveling around and stopping by villages to help with whatever problems they have, while taking care of the temple and its rituals. As there must always be a worshiper of the Triad present, they must wait for another group to arrive before continuing on with their journey. Sometimes this means the paladins may end up moving almost permanently to a village, if no other groups ever stop by.
Dubhe also mentions that within the knights of Polaris, they usually play games to decide who stays behind to take care of the temple - Dubhe lost twice, and while at first he stayed with another knight, Alioth, they’ve chosen once more and his new partner is Merak, a dwarven woman sworn to Tyr. He lets Annie know that he recognises Alcor as a knight of Polaris, but for some reason his head is muddled from not remembering any specifics of him at all, let alone the rest of the party, but he would like to help, if possible. He suggest you find his partner Merak upstairs where the living quarters are located, perhaps she can help you more.
Merak is a stout dwarven woman with a shaved head, wearing a similar tunic as Dubhe. She however, recalls Alcor in perfect detail - and comments that Annie does resemble him quite a bit. She gives Annie a brooch they’ve received from a scamming tiefling bard who says he found it in Easthaven, and tried to sell it back to the temple for profit. The brooch is certainly one that belongs to a knight of Polaris, Torm’s gauntlet holding a bright star. She also lets you have access to Alcor’s living quarters, since they themselves cannot go look for their friends as long as they’re stuck at the temple, it might help to have someone else look for them instead.
Inside, Annie finds several books. Mortal Consequences by brother Genetivi, seemingly about the ancient history of a fallen empire. Next to it is a thick tome about the Morphology and Grammatics of dead languages by Willam Fairweather. Annie recognises the book having the same writing system described as the scribbles on Rowan’s book, so she takes that one with her. Under one of the beds is another brooch, small enough to fit on the palm of a hand. It’s sharp and seems to depict nothing in particular, but when shown to Merak, she mentions that it’s stolen from one of the many wizards who have travelled to Ten-Towns in the past couple of months. The knights of Polaris seem to think there’s something peculiar going on in Easthaven, as there shouldn’t be anything particularly interesting in any of the Ten-Towns to garner the attention of so many arcanists. It’s also the reason why the lot of them have travelled there, to find out what’s going on. However, there has been no word of them in months now, which seems highly suspicious as it shouldn’t be such a time-intensive quest and especially with no letters coming their way. Annie takes the other brooch, as well as a half-written letter written in Alcor’s familiar bold script. The letter itself seems to be only an unfinished draft that he either abandoned or was in too much of a hurry to finish.
“Well met and salutations,
Hello, dear An[this word is scribbled over with ink] sister. It’s been a while, hasn’t it? I’m sorry for not writing you sooner. It’s been “
As you return back to the inn, you notice the moon shining down between the heavy clouds of snow - already in its first quarter, halfway to full. It’s slightly less dark than before, but the air is once again getting colder. You take a moment to figure out what items you need for the road and plan on packing. Before you head to bed, you knock on the tieflings’ door to let them know you’ll be traveling with them and leaving the first thing in the morning. However, you’re interrupted by Rowan barging up the stairs, telling you to leave immediately as the clerics from the House of the Morninglord want you arrested - everyone except for Dannika and Vilu. Vilu and Rowan share a moment of acknowledging each others’ friendship and the wish to not be forgotten, and Rowan promises you half an hour if you leave right now and do not take the south-western gate. Viridian gears up and gets everyone to move. She visits miss Myrtle one last time, telling her of their plans to go to Easthaven, and asking her to send a raven to Lonelywood to tell her family that she’s alright, just not coming back home quite yet.
With the help of Vilu knowing the ins and outs of Bryn Shander’s less public alleyways, you manage to reach the northern gate without any guards catching wind of you, and with the help of Salvia commanding the few guards guarding the gate, you manage to slip past them and into the wilderness. For a moment you consider closing the gate behind you, but the guards return sooner than you think, and instead you simply choose to pick up pace and travel faster.
With Viridian’s expert guidance, you travel north via the northern road, and after some time head east and off-road to lose track of the guards in case you’re getting followed. The going is slower now, with the heavy snowfall and wind picking up as you go. Soon you’re all tired of walking in the knee-deep snow, but with the help of Coco, you manage to find a nice, somewhat sheltered area to set up camp. Viridian calls for the chwinga to aid, and before long you have a nice fire going and three tents set up for the night. As you eat dinner, Vilu reminds everyone not to call Auril’s name to attract her attention. Annie has been ritual casting alarm spells to set around the camp, just in case anyone or anything comes too close. You decide to sleep for a few hours, at least until the snowfall ends.
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