Session 1: The Party is Forged

General Summary

In the morning, "Sunny" Brilliant Sun walks through Stonebridge to the Inn of the Spotted Cap, which is a converted palatial house, run by shroom folk. The Inn’s windows are blocked to eliminate sunlight, and the spots on the top of the mushroom shape glow at night. Sunny walks to the bar to order a drink, the bartender telepathically asks if the circus is back in town. Sunny replies “no, dude,” and orders a pint of beer for 2 copper - EXCEPT he promises to perform that evening to get free food and drink. Other patrons are at the bar, probably that had worked the morning already. A lot of shroom people. The bar is fairly quiet, but shroom folk communicate telepathically within a short range, so it’s usually fairly quiet.
Nock arrives in town a few days before Leucis, looking for Roger's Bargain Basement . People are double-taking this warforged, not freaking out, but keeping an eye on him. Nock approaches a half-elf guard, announcing himself into town, asking if there was someone to fully disclose his arrival. Being taken aback, the half-elf is confused, asks if he’s someone important, and informs Nock that there is no practice of announcing arrival. The guard also gives directions to the main attractions of town. Nock is interested in the relics shop, asks if it’s run by a man named Roger, guard confirms. Nock heads off in that direction.
The Bargain Basement does not have a textual sign, just a pic of potion, cloak, etc., with stairs heading down. A bullywug stands near the door, keeping an eye on what’s going on. It moves out of the way of the door, allowing Nock to pass. The shop owner is apparently a hoarder, with stacks and bins full of items. There’s a “blue-light” bin full of a random assortment. He doesn’t find Roger . Nock goes back to the frog person, asking if he’s Roger or knows where he is, and the frog leads him to the back of the shop, where an elderly human stands behind a counter.
While poring over a book and not looking up from his book, he begins “Welcome, what do you need?” He’s very intrigued by the warforged. Nock asks him for information about himself and warforged. The man says he *might* find something about him in his shop. Roger asks to make a deal, having Nock stay around for a day or two, so that he can investigate books and Nock. Roger limps over to a workbench and directs the non-sleeping, non-eating Nock to stand there for the duration. Nock cooperates to his full extent, not holding anything back.
The day before, Leucis Darkstar , after helping some of his hometown of Ironmere neighbors settle in Grayhill-by-the-sea , proceeds to Stonebridge to look for other survivors and the grand Moon temple there. Leucis arrives after dark, the night before the moon’s first light vigil, heading straight to the temple next to the bridge. He notes the busy appearance of the Spotted Cap. The temple is near the base of the bridge, which appears to mirror the night sky, facing the river with a large crescent moon supposedly made of silver on a spire. An acolyte greets as he comes in, who immediately recognizes the symbol and get-up, informs me that the head priestess has already gone to bed for the evening, but asks how to be of help. Leucis accepts a room, and asks for a trip to the shrine. After arriving at his penitent's cell, he duffs his armor, changes into his robes, and heads to the shrine with the acolyte. Offering prayers, he feels the usual warm sensation. Still dressed as a priest, Leucis arrives at The Spotted Cap, and is waved inside by the 2 shroom people guarding the door. He approaches the bar, asks for a meal (duck stew with farm-fresh vegetables) and a beer. The meal is comp’ed for priesthood, but the beer is 2 copper. He sits at a table in the middle of the tavern. Other patrons are looking at him, interested in the odd appearance of the tiefling, but they are used to travelers coming through town. A few do give him a side-eye. The food is really good.
After dining, he recognizes someone in the crowd from his hometown, gambling away, and hadn’t noticed Leucis’ arrival. A farmer that he helped escape is struck by sudden appearance, but greets him. A couple of tieflings made farms on the north side of town, between the buildings and the forest. Experiencing a growing number of attacks from orcs, though the town guard is helping them. Farmer leaves. A gambler offers to teach him how to play the dice game, though he’s not doing so correctly (and Leucis notices). Another gambler intervenes and shuts the teaching and gaming down. After waving to the bartender, all the shrooms look the same, head back to the temple, and sleep. Awoken in the wee hours in the morning before moonrise, Leucis prepares for the vigil, and seeks the high priestess, a quite elderly dwarf named Harridra Flintchip , who has long, multi-silvered hair in dwarven braids. She’s slow. Harridra greets him formally, apologizes for sleeping at his arrival, and offers him the opportunity to participate in the vigil. Parishioners arrive at the temple, and the vigil begins. Leucis directs prayers without trouble. Harridra makes the roof become transparent, but something seems off about the sky - none of the buildings or the bridge appear through the transparency. The vigil goes off without a hitch. The farmer looks the worse for wear, his wife stern, with a couple of kids. The house isn’t quite packed, there are a few empty spots, but there are a lot of people there. Harrida notices that a family of devout half-elves from Ironmere were missing for the service, living on the north side of town. Leucis offers to visit the farm and make sure nothing is wrong. Dons armor to travel, leaving around 10am.
Sunny meanders through town, taking notes of places and features in town for potential song lyrics. The guards seem to be antsy, so Sunny inquires, and finds that there was an orc raid last night or early this morning on the north side of town. The guards don’t expect a fight, but Sunny chooses to continue wandering and makes his way back to the inn for lunch. Patrons of the inn are abuzz about a stranger coming in from the woods and that there was a fight of some kind, with someone dying. Sunny asks for a daytrip, but the bartender is out of the blue mushrooms that people enjoy because harvesters are afraid of going into the woods because of the raids. They offer to pay Sunny for retrieving some, giving directions where they tend to be located.
Nock has been talking to Roger the last couple of days, who has found a few things in his stock that are made of wood, but they look like the same structure and design of Nock’s body. They are inanimate, not the size for Nock, intricately carved, and well-made. Roger has 3 bullywug companions, none that speak, they only click. Nock asks Roger about how he came into the business. In his younger days, Roger was a travelling salesman, but he became so interested in the things that he was finding that it didn't make sense to haul them around anymore. He established a shop and found many people interested in his supplies. Roger is not willing to part with any of the objects of interest, but he will peruse his records to discover their provenance. He will tell Nock where they came from, if Nock agrees to tell him where Roger can find him more items (either now or discovered later) similar to what he has. Nock agrees, on the condition that Roger does not spread the information further. After looking through 2 tomes, Roger finds that the previous items came from a man named Archibald, a traveler who has come through several times, from somewhere way north of town. Roger hasn’t seen Archibald in a while, nor is he sure where he lives (in town or elsewhere). Nock accepts Roger’s invitation to “stay” at the shop when needed. People do come in to sell items, usually scavenged from the destroyed side of town - nothing special.
Towards mid-day, Nock heads to the Spotted Cap. The shroom guards give him a strange look, and warn him that they don’t want any trouble. Sunny notices when Nock walks in, because of the shiny metal face. Sunny scoots over to Nock, admiring his “bodacious armor.” It’s Nock’s face. Nock notices that Sunny is a cat-man-dude. Sunny pulls out her little, leather notebook and takes notes. Nock turns to the bartender and telepathically asks for information about the ruins in the north. They are familiar with Archibald, but haven’t seen him in a while. Nock asks if they’ve seen ruins or anything like his (revealed) arm, to which Sunny reacts to the reveal with wide eyes. The bartender directs him to the ruins in the north forest, but warns of goblins, orcs, and bugbears. Sunny was already planning on going to the north, so asks to join Nock on the way.
Leucis arrives at a farm on the north end of town, where he expects others from Ironmere to be settled. Most farmers are at work in the fields, including the gambler and his sour wife. At one of the northernmost farms, there’s a group of people gathered around a corpse. The guards and citizens are talking, not fighting. Upon approaching the group, he notices a motley group of guards, race-wise, with a loxodon captain that has a sigil of Selune. Leucis remembers the 7’ elephant at the service this morning. Leucis doesn’t recognize the corpse, but does recognize the farmers, who are minorly wounded but tended to. The corpse ran out of the forest, pursued by orcs, and the farmers didn’t understand the language that he was speaking. The corpse is a dark-skinned half-elf with multiple stab wounds. The captain, Esmarl, says he recognizes Leucis’ name from Ironmere survivors. He sent guards into the forest to make sure the orcs had cleared out. The elf had drawn a map in the dirt of a map, starting with a depiction of the town, with a deep path leading to a crescent moon/hook away from the town in the NE. Leucis finds out from Esmarl that there are ruins in the forest, from which scavengers bring in pieces to sell; also, goblinoids have been attacking more recently.
Sunny and Nock come upon the gathering around the corpse and approach to find out about the body and what may lie in their path ahead. They speak to Esmarl to gain information. Nock reveals his arm again, to the surprise of all. We all discuss the map, Nock asks Leucis if he’s familiar with a moon temple in the forest. Esmarl investigates the corpse and can tell that the half-elf was part drow and was exhausted as well as stabbed multiple times. Nock notices that the wounds are made from a large pointy thing (like a spear or polearm). Sunny notices a half-moon charm in the pocket (the skin underneath appears to be irritated by a rash Leucis recognizes the charm as Llyrian, who worship the moon for its magic. Leucis performs a ritual of Detect Magic to discover it has a small bit of Evocation magic, though he can’t tell much else. Nock thinks it’s a light spell on the charm (from Arcana check). Leucis joins the party to move north and investigate. Sunny needs to perform for the inn, Leucis needs to retrieve items from the temple, so they agree to wait until tomorrow to set off. Meeting up “after breakfast,” around 7am, at Spotted Cap.
Leucis stays around to chat with Esmarl and check on the other Ironmere survivors. The captain doesn’t share much useful information. The Ironmere people have set up new farms and do get protected by the town guard, paying them a piece for the arrangement. There are about 20 people between 6 families, and most of them recognize Leucis. With the town guard, arrive at the town graveyard, perform rites, then retire to the temple for the evening. Nock retreats with Sunny to the inn and observes the people there to analyze their customs and ways, watch Sunny’s performance, then retires to the alcove at the Bargain Basement. Sunny changes into costume before his performance (harem pants, tessellated vest, beaded headband), playing the lute at the inn to a full house, with more shroom people than before. Several of them recognize Sunny from the circus, and others swarmed when they heard an entertainer was in town. Sunny blows them all away, with references to the town and to Nock. Nock recognizes that the music is about him and sees people enjoying the music. Nock notices: people are way less formal than he, they’re caught up in the performance and notice others less during music, most non-shrooms are talking loudly, but the shrooms never speak. Roger gives Nock a description of Archibald as a younger (80) male dwarf with jet black hair and beard and comes off as really dirty - not bathing frequently, once Nock asks to compare against the corpse. Nock also asks Roger if he knows anything about the half-drow, but he’s not aware of anyone with that description.