Session 7. - Hiding Out In Cìrdan
General Summary
22nd of Last Light, 1439 A.P.
The party (minus Angrar, who was still MIA) crouched low in the ship's boat as they attemped to quietly escape from the customs inspection on the Frostmaiden. Over the water, they could hear raised voices speaking (and shouting) in a foreign tongue. Deadeye cocked his head and seemed to be listening to what was being said. He turned to inform the others on what he was hearing when a loud splash interrupted him. The party looked back through the gloom to see one of the crew resurface near the ship and start swimming slowly towards them.
At the same time, an unfamiliar face appeared at the stern rail of the ship. He briefly glanced down at the sailor and then ignored him after noticing the party trying to escape in the boat. He shouted something at the fleeing group and when they didn't respond, he spoke some arcane words that made Arbor flinch reflexively as a ball of light blossomed at the top of their mast, bathing the whole boat in a harsh white light. The sounds of fighting could be heard on board the ship. The party scrambled to react. Suljurn and Oorr each grabbed an oar and attempted to hasten their escape. While Suljurn successfully propelled the boat forward, Oorr flailed ineffectively with his oar and the boat began to drift sideways. Another head appeared at the railing with a bow and quickly took two shots. One missed, splashing into the water while the other hit Deadeye solidly in the chest. The tiny kenku collapsed to the bottom of the boat with a sickening thud. There was shouting from the boat and both the mage and archer disappeared out of sight and the sounds of fighting continued to be heard. Urith took the opportunity to hand a ratty kept wolfskin to Arbor who attempted to use his mage hand to obscure the light on the mast. Arbor managed to safely drape the wolfskin over the mast and Urith turned with his bow drawn to deal with any other pursuit. Another archer appeared briefly and Urith let loose, grazing his foe and making him duck back out of sight. Without warning, a huge ball of fire erupted from the deck of the ship. The intense heatwave washed over them even at that distance. Soon the remaining remaining mast and rigging were alight. With the ship backlit with flames, the mage and two archers reappeared and jumped over the ship's side. Instead of landing in the water as expected, a glowing blue-green disc appeared underneath their feet and they sped after the boat. The mage shouted something at them, and even without understanding the language, the intent was clear. Oorr raised his arms, unwilling to engage with the local constabulary and tried to convince the others to do the same but Urith fired back at the archers while Suljurn started chanting and calling on his god to extract vengeance on his foes and Arbor started casting his own spells. The boat drifted aimlessly, carried only by the light current as all pretence of rowing was abandoned. The archers primarily focused their fire on Arbor and Suljurn, trying to disrupt their spellcasting while the mage attempted to subdue Urith. Urith shook off the first few spells and stubbornly refused to go down. Even when a massive tentacle that only he could see, reached out of the water and started crushing him. After Arbor repeatedly being feathered by the archers, the mage cast a sleep spell and both spellcasters went down silently leaving only Urith and Oorr standing. Oorr, who had picked up an oar to assist attacking Urith's imaginary tentacle, saw the futility of fighting and dropped it to raise his hands. Urith stubbornly refused to go down and kept firing, eventually hitting the mage with an entangling arrow that restricted his movement. A shout from the still burning Frostmaiden made the two archers turn back. The mage was unable to maneuver and floated slowly above the boat. Oorr took the opportunity to shake Suljurn and Arbor awake just in time for the mage to break free and summon a huge wave of water that threatened to swamp the boat and drown them all. The wave crashed over the boat and everyone was knocked prone from the weight of the water. Thankfully no one was thrown overboard and the wave managed to push them even farther away from the mage at a significant speed. As the party sputtered and came up for air, they saw the mage turn back towards the Frostmaiden and depart. With Suljurn and Oorr back on the oars the party headed for the noise and revelry of the southern island. Eventually they reached a dock and tied it up. They debated what they were going to do with Deadeye, feeling that carrying around an unconcious body would draw more attention than they wanted. Eventually they decided to leave him in the back of the boat covered by the ratty wolf pelt and a tarp they found on the dockside. They then headed into the city proper to find somewhere to lay low. The area of Cìrdan that they'd landed in was known as the Court of Blossoms and was filled with numerous gambling houses, bars, brothels and various dens of iniquity all radiating out from the tall Elderglass tower known as The Sinspire. Once on the main street, they looked around to get their bearings while trying not to act conspicuous as they dripped water everywhere. They couldn't read any of the signage and assumed it was all in elven. There was a large crowd in the street ahead of them trying to get into a large building with glowing alchemical lights and a magical flashing sign above it. Arbor cast a spell to comprehend languages and discovered that while he could now understand the Elven spoken around him, he was unable to speak it. Just being able to undeerstand it helped somewhat as he figured out that there was an event of some sort going on inside and it would be starting soon. The group let the crowd pull them forward and when they to the door they were relieved to see a small goblin in refined clothing collecting a small entrance fee from everyone. They didn't have much time with the crowd pressing behind and a large Half-Ghrym looming behind the goblin but they managed to ask the goblin a few questions about lodging and he directed them further north into the Seaside area. They thanked the goblin and were going to leave but the press of the crowd and the looming bouncer persuaded them to pay their silver and enter. Once inside they discovered the building housed a moderately sized caged arena surrounded by tiered seating. With uncanny luck they managed to secure a semi-private area close to the arena floor. Everyone grabbed a meat pie and ale from the wandering vendors and sat down to enjoy the fights. The first fight had Oorr outraged as it was two fauns against a chicken. It wasn't until the chicken managed to turn one of the fauns to stone that they realised that it was likely a cockatrice. The second faun went down quickly and the crowd boooed disapprovingly at the lack of entertainment. The ringmaster came out after the cockatrice had been herded back into its cage and tried to mollify the crowd. He was marginally successful and eventually introduced the next fight which pitted two local sea elves against each other. The fight lasted longer as both combatants showed quite a bit more technical skill. Eventually one of the fighters made a mis-step and went down. The crowd was much more appreciative of the spectacle and cheered as the blood flowed. When the ringmaster came out again to hype the next contest, the group could see bookies wandering between the crowd, taking bets as the ringmaster worked the crowd. The group showed no interest in placing a bet and the bookies seemed to sense this and instinctively avoided them. When the two fighters stepped into the arena, the crowd went wild. The party were as shocked at the crowd's response as they were to see that one of the fighters in the arena was their old friend and compatriot Angrar. Thankfully Angrar wasn't facing another cockatrice. Instead, his opponent was another Half-Ghrym like himself, though by his opponent's size, he may have been full-Ghrym. While his opponent was impressively large, he didn't have Angrar's speed or dexterity and the smaller fighter easily outmaneuvered and out classed his larger foe. The fight was short and brutal. Ending with Angrar delivering a massive uppercut that sent his opponent flying back into the arena bars before crashing down to the hard packed ground. As the unconcious foe was being dragged from the arena, Angrar briefly made eye contact with the party and an extremely shocked look crossed his face. Another fight had started but the group wasn't overly interested in it. Before they could leave to find their friend however, a group of uniform clad individuals came and asked them politely to follow them. They followed into the basement of the arena and were ushered into what appeared to be a locker room or a training room of some sort. Angrar greeted them pleasantly and they caught up on events. When Angrar told them he'd been on the island for the past eight months, the others were extremely confused and initially thought that they'd all time travelled and would never get back to cure the villagers. As they talked it out though they realised that only Angrar had been effected as they had only come through the portal several weeks prior. While they were chatting, there was a knock on the door and an obese man with dark hair, a greasy moustashe and several chins came in to congratulate Angrar. He praised his martial prowess and gave him a small coin pouch for his winnings. He also invited Angrar (and after a pause, included his friends as a polite afterthought) to attend a fight that would be happening at the Sinspire in two nights time saying it would be a fight for the ages. Angrar accepted and the promoter left. After bringing Angrar up to speed with what happened to them on the Frostmaiden and what happened earlier in the evening Angrar suggested that they hide out at the Inn where he was staying in Seaside. With no other options, and it getting very late, they agreed. They first went back to collect Deadeye and got their just in time as some local thieves were about to fleece the unconcious kenku. Oorr chased them off, they collected Deadeye and made their way to Angrar's inn, called the Drunken Mermaid somewhere in the Seaside district. The inn wasn't much to look at from the outside but inside it was surprisingly cozy and clean. They rented rooms and got a good night's rest, The following morning Angrar gave them a rough overview of the island over breakfast and they made plans. It had been roughly a month since any of them had been near civilization and they all wanted to replenish their supplies. They checked on Deadeye before they left but he was still out cold which didn't seem to concern them at all. The group briefly debated walking the long way round to the merchant quarter before Angrar advised that a gondola would be quicker. On the ride over, while they idly listened to the gondola's crew throw insults at their peers, they planned out their trip with Urith being the most vocal in his needs for moar arrows; Oorr needed new armour and was interested in silvering his weapons; Arbor was looking to divest himself of some of their loot and hopefully pick up some potions. Angrar and Suljurn had no specific needs initially, though Angrar and the others tried to convince Suljurn into giving up the Aeorian longsword they'd found in Salsvault, arguing that he rarely used it, relying more on his spellcraft than his swordsmanship. The ever taciturn Suljurn eventually relented by saying he'd trade the sword if a suitable halberd or two handed weapon could be found to replace it. Their gondola rowed right past where the Frostmaiden was anchored. The smell of smoke filled the air as they passed. The hull itself seemed relatively unscathed but all that remained of the masts, sails and rigging were a few charred remains. Of the crew, nothing could be seen. Oorr casually pointed out the boat to Angrar who goggled at it as they entered the Merchant's Row. Angrar acted as both guide and translator as they shopped. First stop was getting Urith a seemingly infinite amount of arrows from a fletcher. Then they went looking for an armourer for Oorr. When they entered the shop, the smith was seen speaking furtively to two well-dressed, if somewhat weaselly looking, men. The shopkeeper looked over nervously and said he'd be with them momentarily. The men spoke emphatically and the party didn't need to understand elven to understand a threat had been issued. The men left after delivering an ultimatum and the armourer turned and did his best to serve them, though he was visibly shaken and nervous. When they enquired about the two men, the shopkeeper referred to them as The Hand and tried to downplay things, though he did say he owed them a thousand gold. The party seemed to be somewhat disinterested, for once Oorr had his armour fitted, they moved on without much fuss and found a weaponsmith. On the way there, they noticed several other pairs of men dressed similarly to the ones in the last shop coming out of a couple shops down the street. Oorr made note of them and said under his breath that he knew what was going on. Once inside the shop he enquired about the possibility of silvering one of his rapiers. The smith and he dickered back and forth using Angrar as an interpreter but ultimately Oorr decided that it would take too long for the price the smith quoted. Angrar then asked about the halberds on the wall. The one he picked held no magic but was solid (if somewhat plain) workmanship. After a token amount of haggling, Angrar purchased it and he and Suljurn swapped weapons. After the weaponsmith, Angrar led them through the myriad of maze-like streets that made up the merchant quarter towards the floating market and gemcutter's row. The others were impressed at his direction sense, even after he admitted he'd never been this way before. Once they arrived at gemcutter's row, they arbitrarily picked a shop and went in. Inside they found another pair of similarly dressed thugs shaking down the shopkeep. Fed up with the lawlessness, Oorr stepped in and attempted to threaten the pair. However, his attempt was stymied due to translation issues (despite the translator being a 7 foot tall mountain). The thug glared back in return and gave them all a warning. They had 3 days to leave town or "The Hand will take". The thugs left and Oorr swore he saw his eyes flash red for an instant, but no one else seemed to notice anything beyond the threat. Whatever happened between them, Oorr was unusually quiet afterwards and excused himself from the shop under the pretense of trying to track the thugs. Everyone noticed, but politely ignored the pungent puddle that had formed on the floor where he was standing. The shopkeeper was suitably rattled and gave Arbor really good deals on the jewelry and stones he was wanting to sell and while Arbor was grateful for what they got, he was suspicious that they'd been ripped off. The shopkeeper also expressed a seemingly unhealthy interest in the scrollcase that he carried and Arbor was loath to part with it, for any price. Arbor quickly distributed the coin to the others as they headed to their last stop, an alchemist. Thankfully there wasn't any sign of The Hand inside and Arbor quickly enquired about gaining some healing potions from the shopkeeper. Healing potions the shopkeeper had in abundance, unfortunately for Arbor, and the others who were also interested, the pricetag -- while wholly reasonable -- was far higher than they were expecting and so Arbor only ended up selecting one and the others passed. As he was wrapping up the transaction, Arbor started to enquire about duplicating the Frigid Woe potions and remedies he was carrying but was interrupted by Suljurn who said that he wanted new armour. The others castigated him for waiting long after they'd left the armourer to speak up. As it was late in the day, they headed back to the armourer a quickly as they could. After some haggling, Suljurn put a deposit down for a new set of chainmail but was told it would take three days to have it refitted to his unique saurial frame. Before they left, Suljurn emphatically told the others that they weren't leaving town without getting his armour. With the shopping trip wrapped up they headed back to the Drunken Mermaid. After dinner the others lounged around the inn while Angrar headed back out to the docks to work a quick shift unloading crates from the ships. He kept his ears open for any rumours of The Hand but only heard about the fire on the Frostmaiden. His pay was a pittance, and as he was heading back to the inn, he overheard the watch questioning some of the other workers with some fairly detailed descriptions of his friends, decribing them as some of the escaped pirate crew who had brought some highly illegal cargo to Cìrdan. The watch were offering a reward but thankfully the workers hadn't seen anything.Angrar made it back to the inn unmolested. The others had already gone to bed by the time he arrived and he decided that the news could wait until morning.
Rewards Granted
- 196xp
Character(s) interacted with
- Captain Sholovari
Notes
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Oorr Rosetta del Hilltopple
Chaotic Good [Tar] Faun (City Watch / Investigator)
Rogue 4
Sorcerer 1
Rogue 4
Sorcerer 1
37 / 37 HP
STR
10
10
DEX
18
18
CON
12
12
INT
8
8
WIS
12
12
CHA
16
16
Urith Thane
Suljurn sah-Ghad
Arbor Nox
Angrar Ironbrow
Report Date
25 Mar 2023
Primary Location
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