Book IV | Chapter II | Key Witness Report Report in Tellandria | World Anvil

Book IV | Chapter II | Key Witness Report

General Summary

On the day after the events of The Magistrate, the party began making plans to investigate The Fat Man's Haunts. Cass, Oliver, Jack, and Tourmaline decided to begin their investigations at Key Witness, a locksmithing company that had previously done business with The Fat Man according to Cards.

The four adventurers traveled to Maker's Square in the early afternoon to scope out Key Witness and find out what the best means of entry was. When they arrived, they discovered a sign on the door that read "Closed. Check back in Suncrest." Without drawing too much attention to themselves, the party discovered that Key Witness was well-guarded with magical wards and arcane locks, some of which were enchanted with divination magic.

The party elected to wait until 3:00 AM to break into Key Witness, but chose to remain in Maker's Square for the rest of the evening to learn what they could through observation of the business. During this time, Oliver Revilo picked up some books on alternative medicine and calisthenics, Jack Morning attempted some research on magical familiars, Cass performed some mental eavesdropping on goons making their rounds of the Hilltop Ward, and Tourmaline made a moderate sum of money through some magically-assisted busking.

At 3:00 AM, the party returned to Key Witness dressed down to their regular attire, and infiltrated the business via the upstairs window. Inside, they discovered through Oliver's use of the Clue spell, that someone had recently been forcefully removed from the upstairs living area. Further investigation indicated that this person may have been Ana. As Oliver Revilo looked underneath the bed for clues, one of the rugs on the floor became animate and attacked him. With the help of a Dispel Magic from Tourmaline, the party was able to dispatch the attacking rug relatively quickly.

Tourmaline discovered a note on a desk upstairs that appeared to be a cryptic message from Ana to her father, Aeson Amastacia. The message read:
10/10/10

I was thinking, which is not hard for a genius girl like me, helping you hash that box that loony, dumb customer left me soooo tired, I went back to bed, borrowed the only pillow, k?
--
Your Ana
By decoding the message, the party was eventually able to find a small puzzle box in the pillow on the upstair bed, which contained a magical key called Locksmith's Bane and 10 Electrum pieces, and were able to find a list of the full names of the Amastacia Family inside a dictionary.

On the main shop floor, the party found a room full of complex mechanical and magical locks created by Aeson Amastacia. When searching around the room, the party found a small spellbook containing some spells that Aeson presumably used in his locksmithing, some glyphs connected to various security and maintenance enchantments in the space, and a hidden door behind a family portrait wall. Though it took some time, the party was eventually able to figure out the command word that would open up the Greater Arcane Lock on the hidden door (Analise Amastacia).

The basement of Key Witness contained a messy arcane locksmithing forge, where the party was able to find Aeson's magical locksmithing tools, some complete spell scrolls, Aeson's notebooks, and a permanent teleportation circle. The party was able to learn that the teleportation circle was installed by someone named the Rift-Bridger, who had created the teleportation circle as payment for a commissioned lock from Aeson. Jack Morning copied the teleportation circle's pattern into his notes, and then the party traveled through the teleportation circle, which took them to an abandoned cave network that was connected to the northern side of the Under Ward.

The party decided that their next play may be to visit Tundrentaug Manor, the largest and most ostentatious of the mansions of Baron's Pride, and the private home of the banking baron Emreas Tundrentaug. Aeson's notebook made mention of the fact that The Fat Man had requested copies of the locks and keys that Aeson had installed on the Tundrentaug Manor several years ago.  

Rewards Granted

The following rewards were found by the party:

  • A spellbook containing the spells Manipulate Clockwork, Mending, and Arcane Lock 
  • A spell scroll containing the spell Knock 
  • 10 Platinum Pieces, 10 Electrum Pieces, 100 Gold Pieces, and 20 Silver Pieces 
  • Aeson Amastacia's magical locksmithing tools 
  • Aeson Amastacia's notebook, containing diagrams of many of his lock models
  • Locksmith's Bane, a magical key that grants a +3 bonus to any lockpicking attempts
  • 3 display models of Aeson's Lock of Trickery 
In-Game Date:
17-18 of Raindraw
Play Date:
31 July 2023 
Dungeon Master: 
Owen Fulton 
Campaign
Adventures in Chapel Valley
Protagonists
Tourmaline
(Charlatan)
Bard
1 / 1 HP
STR
10
DEX
14
CON
13
INT
12
WIS
2
CHA
15
Cass
Cards
Oliver Revilo
Jack Morning
()
8 / 8 HP
STR
DEX
CON
INT
WIS
CHA
Report Date
01 Aug 2023
Primary Location
Secondary Location


Cover image: by Owen Fulton