Session 15 Report
General Summary
[session 15: 16.05.2024]
26-27th of Hammermoon / Deepwinter, 1489, Year of the warrior princess
the moon is waxing gibbous and nearly full.
Sleeping outdoors is starting to take its toll on most of the party - The Frostmaiden’s Winter is harsh and unforgiving, but so is Far North to begin with. The most adept of you is Viridian, already quite used to camping outdoors.
She dreams of home. It’s probably that she misses home, after leaving Miss Myrtle so abruptly in Bryn Shander. She’s been there for her before, practically became her mother for a time. In her dream she plaits braids into her hair, weaves good-smelling flowers in between. From her she’s learned a lot of herbology, about what plants to look for and which ones to avoid. The dream smells like home, someone is tanning leather just outside the house, there’s a stew bubbling in the kitchen, her little cousins are playing outside. Father’s voice, as he’s teaching her brother. Viridian cannot see either of them, so she focuses on Myrtle braiding her hair, untangling it from your woodland adventures and its souvenirs. A refreshing dream, but one that only fuels her homesickness.
Primrose also dreams, of the moon and how it watches over her, how it always has. It brings calm and comfort, the moon, and how it’s a constant reminder that despite everything the Frostmaiden has done, Selûne persists and so does her faith. The Sun might be gone, locked behind a veil of darkness, but the moon cannot be shut away. It is in her, the light of it rushes through her blood and protects her. The knowledge is comforting - until she sees a large winged figure cross the full moon and cover it. She knows in her bones that the creature is looking for her, trying to find her to hunt her down.
She starts running.
Annie too, dreams. When last night her dream of the abandoned city was crisp, now the dream is hazy - as if seen through a veil. There’s barely any comfort, and the little there is, comes from the familiar cocoon of a cape, worn and familiar. It is the night sky, familiar constellations embroidered into it with golden thread. But the comfort ends there, with how the cloak seeps through with blood. The dream is patchy, but it feels as if there’s a connection, pulling strength from her muscles. It’s straining, and before long, she feels as if she had run a marathon. There’s a flash of pain, of red and bone-white pain that cuts through the dream but still dulls before it quite reaches her. The dream is dark, hazy. The tiredness is taking over. When she wakes the ghost-pain of a splintered ankle still persists.
Over breakfast, Viridian and Vilu are cooking together and packing everyone’s stuff. Annie wonders if she might have sleepwalked, for the pain feels awfully real. However, there seems to be no fresh steps leading from her and Primrose’s tent. Dannika, still cuddled in her blankets, shares her dream as well, of following the chwinga into the dark forest and getting lost. Salvia remains quiet. You send a message to Morven, asking about happenings in Targos and whether there might be something he would like from Easthaven. He responds soon, asking for a bottle of Blue Eyes and telling you that Naerth has been up to no good once more, but as problems go, he’s a small fry for now. Technically, Morven refers to the speaker as a “pickle”. For a while, you talk about the dreams and their possible meanings, and get ready to brace Easthaven. Vilu shares tips and tricks on how to avoid getting pickpocketed, as you know the city is known as the Town of Thievery where petty crime is legal in honour of the town’s founders, a league of thieves escaping the duchy of Cape Velen centuries ago.
In comparison to Bryn Shander and Targos, there doesn’t seem to be any walls containing the city this time. The city is sprawling, with farmhouses on the outer edges spreading out. Most of the city has been built from wood, but in the center there are a few stone-masoned buildings, as per usual denoting the oldest and richest buildings.
The road you’re walking takes a deep turn down, becoming precarious with all the ice and snow and the darkness that surrounds you. You feel it might have been a good idea to wait for the morning until you head to the town, just because of the road’s condition. But as you walk, you see more and more buildings, less constructed in a clear district-like manner like in Bryn Shander, but more organic, each building built simply where there has been space enough for them. Curiously, a lot of people are walking towards the eastern market square, where you too can soon see warm firelight coming from. It paints everything in a warm, inviting glow, and the crowds navigate towards it like moths. Well, to a flame. The day is cold, well below freezing, so the promise of warmth is inviting.
A man is burning at the stake.
He’s not screaming, for his mouth has been tied, and you can see flames already engulfing his form. It’s hard to tell what he looks like, especially when the crowd around him huddles closer for warmth. Next to the bonfire, a woman clad in full mail reads out loud the sentence - the man, wizard Dzaan, has been condemned to die by fire.
“For your severe, ungodly crimes against all civilised peoples, and by law, I condemn you to die by the fire. Let death take you and whichever god you pray to listen to your confession. “
Annie asks a fellow citizen about the crime for why he has been condemned and you learn that he has been caught red-handed severing the jawbones of the missing adventuring party he had hired months earlier. The victims of his crime were two local youths, barely old enough to begin their careers as adventurers, a fellow from Caer Dineval and one of the traveling knights who thought it best to accompany the youngsters. All of them found dead on the tundra. Apparently Dzaan had been hiring people to find the Hidden Cities, but what came of that, no one knows.
Annie is fixed on talking to the captain of the guard, Iulia Driftwood, but the rest of the party thinks it best to first try to sell their wares and find accommodations for the evening, and so eventually Annie folds. As most of the townspeople seem to have gathered around the Market Square to follow the execution, finding a store nearby is nearly impossible, and so instead the party goes to search for the White Lady Inn that the locals believe to be haunted.
On your way to the dockside, Viridian and Vilu are sharp-eyed enough to notice a nimble figure trying to steal something from the floating disc where you’ve hauled most of your stuff that you don’t carry with you. Although Vilu isn’t quite fast enough to cast a spell before the person vanishes from sight, Viridian manages to physically tackle her - turns out she is another halfling, her golden curls a wild cloud around her face while her hood covers the rest of it. She threatens you for messing with the Jewels of the Underworld, but introduces herself as Emerald - likely reminiscent of her green eyes. Viridian promptly gets the rations she’s holding on to, and sends her on her way. Both Salvia and Vilu wonder whether they knew each other, but Viridian merely has heard nefarious stories of halflings down on their luck and joining the infamous league of thieves in Easthaven.
Easthaven is one of the largest fishing towns out of all the Ten-Towns - Targos might boast with the largest ships, but Easthaven is none too shabby herself. Out of all the towns sharing the waters of Lac Dinneshare, Easthaven is easily the largest. And so it makes sense to find accommodations near the lake’s shore, the White Lady Inn standing tall near the docks. A wooden sign hangs above the large double doors, portraying a hanged woman dressed in a white, flowing gown.
The inn itself is quite grandiose, but clearly old and seen better days - as tourism has dwindled in Icewind Dale in general, places of hospitality usually take the brunt of it. You find a grand counter with fancy bottles of wine set behind it, the lounge itself quite fancy. A tall half-orc woman with a long salt and pepper braid and magnificent tusks is shining the delicate wine glasses behind the counter. She introduces herself as Riesling Ten-Strong, the proprietor of the establishment. You try to book three rooms but she only has one larger room and a smaller, more private room to offer for now, and gives you a small discount for it. While the larger room needs to be cleaned as she relocates another guest, you decide to look for a tanner to sell your peryton wares to. She hints at two half-elven twins, Sul and Sorrel, running a place on the southern slopes of the city. As the inn has not been doing too well these past months (years), she’s stopped providing tavern services and instead tells you that you are free to use the kitchen amenities or perhaps visit the Wet Trout, a local tavern. Riesling is decidedly anti-magic in regards the current events, and seems suspicious that you would wish to find an alchemist as they literally just found the guy who committed such a horrendous crime.
Salvia and Dannika stay behind while you go look for the tanner, and Viridian’s nose is oddly keen when it comes to finding them. On the way to the tanner’s, you notice a large blue roan horse, clad warmly against the winter, grazing outside on the fenced area behind the building. On the yard there’s a few hides set out to stretch, the strong smell letting everyone else know why Viridian might have recognised traces of it even earlier.
You meet Sul and Sorrel, the twin half elves running the place. They’re both brown-haired and with tans to match. One of them has their hair on a ponytail, and they introduce themselves as Sorrel. Both of them are very intrigued by the peryton hides, and before long Viridian manages to haggle good prices for them. In total, you get 27 gold for the two pelts and some rib bones thrown in. When Annie asks about her brother, the twins actually recognise the portrait, letting you know that they’ve been taking care of three horses belonging to the knights of Polaris, ever since last Fading.
They show you the horses, a dappled mare named Peregrine whom Annie immediately recognises as Alcor’s, as well as a dark bay stallion called Galahad. The third horse is the blue roan grazing outdoors, named Chimera, and it belongs to the leader of the knights, ser Mizar Elyan. The third knight with them might have been ser Alkaïd, Rowan’s half-orc friend.
As you head back to the inn to have some dinner, Annie tries to convince everyone that it would be a good idea to visit the guard captain now, as she might know more about the crime and the convicted criminal, wizard Dzaan. The peryton bones land in such a way that could be a sign of there being information gained if you go soon. The party remains unassured, with dinner weighing heavier on their minds.
Vilu is debating whether they should just eat the hearts, if they will spoil soon and no one wants to buy them for the price they could be worth. Morven has advised against eating the heart if the last meal of the creature was humanoid, but if cooked, they could be nutritious. Annie remembers that the magical potential might be diminished if the heart is cooked however, and Vilu arrives at the conclusion that they should at least try to eat the heart raw. They offer to share, but no one else seems to be willing to try this… delicacy?
Eating a cursed creature’s heart has peculiar effects, it seems. One of them Vilu notices soon, the way they can suddenly sense everyone else’s heartbeats, one beat at a time until they’ve consumed enough of the heart to keep hearing a faint echo of them even after. Half of the heart eaten, Vilu has to stop eating because the taste and sensation get to them. Annie feels their forehead and notices it to be cold and clammy. Vilu has broken in feverish cold sweat, but is adamant about eating the rest of the heart. Viridian, cooking stew to the rest of the party, advices them to sear it on a pan.
At least the stew doesn’t have a heartbeat.
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