Session 21: The Aftermath

General Summary

After Midnight, 12th of Drawingdown-Night, 12th of Drawingdown

Claire and Conor
Splitting off from Kaiess, Claire and Conor run upstairs to see if the people in the room above theirs are hurt. They find the door of the room standing open and see four unconscious bodies lying within. Conor sends the Spirit form of Falcor ahead of them to try to cure the wounded, but as it passes through the open door of the room, it disappears. Claire takes a position to try to heal from a distance, but her spell is unable to target anyone within the room. Conor runs in and drags two of the nearest bodies out into the hallway.
Thinking back on all of her knowledge of arcana, Claire thinks that their inability to cast spells in the area affected by the blast might be due to damage or disruption of the Weave. She hovers by the doorway and takes the wounded from Conor once she draws near enough. Claire finishes dragging them to safety as Conor heads back to save the remaining two people.
As she grabs the wounded in their bunks, Conor begins to feel a twisting feeling in her stomach as waves of nausea wash over her. Looking down at her hands, she sees burns growing across her skin. The symptoms look like those common in the villagers of Steepwick who had been suddenly, intensely exposed to Autunite—a disease the villagers had named Cave Sickness.
She pulls a nearby human out of his bunk and hoists him over her shoulder. On the other side of the room, she hears a quiet groan as the other person, a half elf, seemingly rouses to consciousness. Conor passes the body to Claire through the door, who uses Channel Divinity to heal the three survivors. As they slowly come to, Conor drags the half elf into the hallway. Claire heals him and tells the four of them to stay here, for the moment. She takes a few minutes casts Detect Poison and Disease as a ritual and learns that all four of the survivors and Conor have Acute Radiation Poisoning.
Kaiess
Downstairs, Kaiess enters his room to assess the damage. Nothing seems to be actually burned, but the stone walls look almost sun-bleached in places. The floors seem to have taken some damage, and they creak beneath Kaiess’s feet as he steps over the twisted pieces of the destroyed automaton. The window and bed have both been smashed apart by the force of the blast. Looking around, he sees that all of his supplies that he left out in the room are severely damaged—his armor and clothes are in shreds, his crossbows are snapped, and the ground is littered with bolts. His enchanted Dwarven clothing is so damaged as to be unwearable, but it seems as though the enchantment might still linger in the cloth. The reinforced chest at the foot of his bed is broken open, but inside, his backpack and its contents seem to be unharmed. He grabs his backpack, the Dwarven clothes, and his unique bolts and abandons the rest of his ruined belongings.
Kaiess rushes downstairs to check on the people on the 2nd floor. He finds the suite above theirs empty, and starts knocking on doors to tell people to get out. The floor seems mostly deserted, including the offices of the Silversmiths’ Guild on the western side of the inn.
He vaults over the railing into the first floor tavern below, landing somewhat less than gracefully. He stands up and announces to the inn guests crowded around, with all of the authority a man in a loincloth can muster, that they should all remain calm. An incident has occurred, he says, but it’s being handled by professionals. Someone should send for healers, the city guard, and alert the Citadel.
A broad-shouldered human woman who seems to be in charge shouts back to say she’s already sent the kitchen boys as runners to fetch help, and asks why he fell into the tavern, naked, from the 2nd floor. He tells her that saboteurs of unknown origin have attacked, hoping to spread fear by killing patrons, but he’s part of the group that took them down and made the whole explosion much less dangerous than it could have been. The woman introduces herself as Ivy Drake, night manager of Traders' Hall, and brings Kaiess back into the kitchen to try to find him something to wear. Not having any actual spare clothes on hand, she gives him a pair of aprons to tie around himself, front and back.
Kaiess finds the middle-aged couple he pulled from the room next to theirs and has them follow him upstairs. He finds Claire, Conor, and Falcor on the 4th floor with a group of four survivors.
Group
Claire and Conor cure the wounded of their sickness, including one of the people from the room next to theirs, but they don’t have enough spell slots to heal Conor herself. They lead the group of survivors downstairs to the tavern and head back up to their room to try to salvage Claire and Conor’s belongings.
Conor steps through the threshold of her room and takes stock of the damage. As their room was protected from the worst of the blast by a stone wall, most of their belongings are safe. Everything they locked in their chest, as well the enchanted teddy bear Claire was sleeping with, is unharmed. Conor’s bedroll on the floor is badly damaged and her enchanted teddy bear is coming apart at the seams, though the enchantment has not broken. Claire’s armor and shield, discarded in her haste to get out into the hallway and join the fight, are also damaged. Conor passes all of their items out of the door to her companions, abandoning her ruined bedroll.
Four guards ascend the stairs. Their leader, a dark-skinned man with coils of black hair, approaches the group. He wears scale mail and his cloak is fastened with a pin of the Crowhill crest. He introduces himself as Captain Wheatflow of the city guard, and asks the group to tell him what they know.
Kaiess tells him that all of them had been asleep when his friends in the next room were attacked. He awoke and started to attack the person who had broken into their room, and as his swords cut through its clothes, he noticed that its body seemed to be made of metal and gears rather than flesh. It started making awful noises, and parts of it started rapidly spinning, so he locked it in his room. It exploded. He assures Captain Wheatflow that other patrons had seen the creature and their battle, and could back up his account.
Conor goes into Kaiess’s room and retrieves some of the warped pieces of the automaton to show him, and tells him that the creature picked the lock on her and Claire’s door.
When asked, the group shows Captain Wheatflow their magic-use permits. He tells the group that the temples are lodging the displaced for the night. The group warns him not to go into the blast radius as it is toxic, and he sends one of his guards off to fetch the mages.
Downstairs, the crowd is beginning to thin as people head off towards the temples of the Harvest Mother and the Shield Father. On their way out, Kaiess pays Ivy Drake 10 PP to help fund the repairs to Traders’ Hall.
They make their way to the Temple of the Harvest Mother, where Kaiess is given a long brown robe to cover himself. They are given rooms in a cell they will be sharing with a wizened old human woman. She introduces herself as Alys Goldback, merchant of fine embroidered cloth. They ask her if she knows anyone who might be able to repair enchanted clothing. Of the few names she mentions, the one that seems closest to the path they plan to take on their journey to Greenlake is a magical cloth merchant named Keys with a shop in the town of Port Dunhythe on the coast of Rosany.
Claire gives Kaiess 30 of her platinum pieces for things he lost in the explosion, and passes Conor 20 GP. Conor gives Claire back 3 of the gold to help pay for repairs of her armor and shield.
Conor is healed by priests of the temple and is cured of her disease. After a meal of soup prepared by the temple acolytes, the group goes to sleep for the night.
In the morning, they wake up to find that Alys has already gone. In their moment’s privacy, they discuss whether or not they think the automaton was trying to kill all of them, or only Claire, as it seems to have had a preference for attacking her. Their assumption is that the attack was carried out by the Consortium, and they wonder if Cleves was the one who sent the automaton after them. Could he have done this after only one night?
Not knowing if her presence will draw more attacks, Claire asks to stay behind with Falcor at the temple while Conor and Kaiess go off to have their items repaired and replenish their supplies.
Kaiess and Conor split off to do their shopping. Kaiess finds his way to an archery shop and purchases a +1 heavy crossbow from a bowyer named Joseph Caskbow. Its finely carved of ash wood with a motif of vines whittled into the top of the limbs. All of its metal parts are plated with brass and feature copper-inlaid runes.
During her time alone at the temple, Claire works with the priests and learns a little about how healing works in the city of Crowhill. The temple of the Harvest Mother is one of the primary medical organizations in the city, though there is tension with the Guild of Physicians over whose methods and philosophies are most sound.
The group meets back up at the temple. Conor has brought a variety of pastries and breads for her friends to snack on. Seeing that Alys is still out, they decide to summon the tiny chest from the Ethereal Plane. Inside, they find a small, folded piece of parchment. It is a note that reads:

“Claire Blackwell, Conor, and my new friend Kaiess Knollton,

Congratulations on surviving, you’re tougher than you look. Those crystals our mutual friend had are certainly unique, aren’t they? You’ve made a grave mistake, but I have to thank you for the boons it has brought me.

See you soon,
GLW

Ps: Kaiess, it’s good to put a name to a face.”

Over dinner, a messenger from the Citadel appears to alert the group that there will be an inquisition into the incident at Traders Hall, and their presence as witnesses is requested at the Citadel the following morning at 9 am.
That night, Conor begins to craft a greater healing potion.
During their night’s rest, they take turns taking watch. Alys sleeps through until morning, seemingly ignoring their antics. Kaiess goes first, sitting up waiting for a reason to use his new, giant crossbow. Conor uses Detect Magic during her watch and finds no other sources of magic other than the magical goods carried by her and her friends.

---

During her watch, Claire ritually casts Augury twice. She asks the following questions and receives the following answers:

• Is telling the Duke about our history in Steepwick and Redcrest likely to be beneficial to us? Weal and Woe.

• Is Kaiess's mother likely to be able to help us? Weal.

Rewards Granted

Group: Tasty pastry snacks, a note signed "GLW", another summons from the Duke
Kaiess: some of his stuff back, two aprons, a robe of a Priest of the Harvest Mother (long, brown), 30 PP, +1 Heavy Ash Crossbow
Conor: most of her stuff in tact, 17 GP from Claire
Claire: most of her stuff in tact

Missions/Quests Completed

Give a (mostly naked) Speech (Kaiess)
Patrons Healed, Total: 6
Sick New Weapon! (Kaiess)
Jeez, that's a lot of notes from the The Greenlake Wizard...
Jeez, that's a lot of summons from the Duke...
World's Best Dog Award (Falcor, reigning champion)

Character(s) interacted with

PCs

Conor Oakenriver
Claire Blackwell
Kaiess Knolltun

NPCs

Four More Survivors
Ivy Drake, night manager of Traders’ Hall
Captain Wheatflow of the Crowhill City Guard
Alys Goldback, embroidered cloth merchant
Joseph Caskbow, bowyer

Notes

Finish times for repairs in progress:
Claire’s shield—Morning of the 13th
Conor’s sling + spear—Morning of the 13th
Conor’s staff—Morning of the 13th
Conor’s shield—Morning of the 13th
Claire’s armor—Morning of the 14th

Report Date

04 Feb 2019

Primary Location

Crowhill