Day 18
Lavender decides to retire early and bathe before bed. Gage agrees to let them know when they return from the casino. Theren also leaves early to meditate on his patron.
Gage starts speaking to the bar staff about the casino to find out what else is going on there besides gambling. The choices are: a very blond dwarf with a massive braided beard, a gorgeous drow in a medieval wench outfit, a halfling running around doing a balancing act with plates and the blue dragonborn bar tender, Azuul. Gage decides that the best person to speak to is the Halfling.
Gage lifts his tankard to get more ale. He begins to ask about the casino – The Jade Zephyr. The halfling says that there’s gambling there, maybe drugs. Gage asks if the halfling plays at the casino. Taimora’s Favour is his game. The halfling suggests the Captain’s Wheel to meet different people and get information, using thieves’ cant. He mentions people that should not be crossed in there – one of the names is Zadhir.
Gage recognises the name and says so. He thanks the halfling for the drink. Temerity takes a break from performing briefly, leaving the firbolg to perform solo. Gage tells Temerity about Zadhir being at the casino and that they should go and check it out. Temerity, however, is reluctant to visit the casino. Gage agrees to wait until Temerity has finished performing before they go.
Chaos reigns as the menagerie assist Temerity with performing. Gage demands that Temerity accompanies him once the playing has finished. Temerity doesn’t want to. Gage offers to let fate decide the issue by playing a 50/50 game. Temerity is completely unconvinced. Gage has let the drink get to him and falls off his chair.
Temerity leaps back up into the performance and begins some illusions of Gage and a jackal snogging. The performances go very well. Temerity becomes more hyperactive as the night wears on, inebriated by the exhaustion and ambience. Lots of illusions continue, gradually becoming more bizarre. The illusions begin to go out of control – whirls and whorls of snow and plant life begins swirling. The audience is entranced by the tunnel of swirling that seems to be drawing them down. Anaphel is sitting in the corner, trying to be unobtrusive. Temerity plays until he physically collapses.
Gage wakes from his trance about 20 minutes later, just before Temerity passes out. Gage telepathically asks Anaphel what happened while he passed out. Anaphel sends back that gnomes were doing lewd things. Gage checks his pockets – all of his money is gone. Gage speaks telepathically to Anaphel and notices Anaphel tense when the subject of indoctrination comes up – the contact cuts off. Gage decides to go to bed, letting the others know.
As Temerity collapses, he sees himself moving through deep forest. Light cannot reach through the canopy. There are thorns all around, scratching at him. He feels compelled to reach the deepest part of the forest. Temerity works his way deeper into the forest, through the intense silence. He passes a distinctive tree. It looks like a gnome – small in stature, bulbous head and branches like arms from the top. He acknowledges how strange this seems. He continues walking and the keeps seeing the same tree. He arranges the foliage nearby to give it a phallus, in order to confirm if it is the same tree. As he approaches it, the arms of the tree grab him by the wrist and horn and twist him down to the ground.
Temerity makes a sarcastic remark to the tree. A voice sounds, like splitting wood, but freezing. It accuses him of lying. A root springs up and begins to tighten around his throat – he cannot speak and struggles to breathe. Temerity begins to panic and activates hellish rebuke. The voice shrieks in pain and releases his hand – his head and neck remain ensnared. Temerity is now panicking and thrashing. He casts minor illusion to create noise – it sounds like static but it morphs into the same tunnel from earlier. Just before he passes out, the voice asks why he shows lies.
Theren could not concentrate on his meditation because of the noise, so drifts off to sleep. Lavender takes a relaxing bath and has a nice evening, in spite of the racket downstairs. Gage is utterly hammered and cannot quite unlock his door. Eventually he manages to get the door open and falls on the floor, asleep just inside the doorway.
Day 19
Everyone wakes, fully rested. Temerity is in his room, with Anaphel’s cloak over him. There is a choker around his neck, with vines and roots as the pattern. Temerity looks in the mirror and admires his new accessory. Temerity exits his room and sees Gage in his doorway, snoring loudly with Guido beside him, passed out. Temerity puts a chair in the corridor from his room with Anaphel’s cloak folded neatly on it and his carving on top of it and then heads downstairs. Lavender wakes early and does some stretches and callisthenics. Lavender heads downstairs after her workout and sees Temerity already down there. Temerity is being served free food by the drow and he’s flirting with her.
Lavender approaches the table and helps herself to some food. Temerity cannot recall anything about the previous night’s entertainment. One group is still slumped on a table snoring from last night. Lavender orders some tea from the drow, who is now flirting with both Temerity and Lavender. Lavender asks whether or not Temerity got to the casino. Temerity asks the drow server what happened last night. She gives a sultry response, telling him about his astonishing performance. Lavender gets annoyed at the brazen flirting; Temerity is enjoying her irritation. Temerity begins suggestively eating his breakfast. When Lavender puts her cup down, Temerity steals it and takes a drink from it.
Theren wakes early and keeps the room dark and quiet, meditating on his patron again. As he meditates, he returns to the childhood memory and the lean-to with the loom. The presence is behind him again. He turns to face it, but this was the wrong thing to do. There’s a being there, with multiple arms and legs at different angles and three faces on one head. It lunges towards Theren and he is forced from his meditation. He is too shaken to try again – he feels he has angered his patron and wants to make amends. He hears Gage snoring and sees him cuddling Guido. Theren offers to pour water over him or get him a drink. Gage takes the ewer from Theren and tips it at his face – some goes in his mouth, some over his head. Guido protests as water splashes over him. Theren picks up by the scruff and places him outside Temerity’s room. Guido wanders off and falls down the stairs. Theren leaves Gage to rouse himself.
Gage checks his pockets and remembers that he has no money. Gage heads downstairs and finds Theren stealing food from Temerity’s plate. Temerity is still on top of the world. The drow is massaging the top of his head. Gage starts eating cheese from Temerity’s plate. Guido joins them and eats cheese too.
Temerity asks the drow about transport heading south. Lavender finishes her breakfast and rises, informing them that she will head out to find transport. Theren stands to accompany her. Anaphel comes downstairs, returning the carving to Temerity.
Temerity continues flirting with the drow – she continues massaging his head and back. Lavender, Theren and Anaphel leave to find transport. As Theren turns to leave he spots, and comments on, Temerity’s choker. The drow strokes the choker. Lavender also spots the choker. Gage notices it now that Theren comments on it and notes that it’s not natural. Temerity avoids commenting on it.
Lavender, Theren, Gage and Anaphel head out into the marketplace as it is setting up. It’s quite overcast but not dark. Lavender heads to a reputable-looking merchant. The merchant mentions that the best place to look would be at the southern gate but that there wasn’t really a coach station in the town. Lavender asks if anyone might want protection to travel south. The merchant mentions that someone at the casino is trying to open a branch in the big city. She asks if they’re interested in any of her wares – they are all erotic toys. Lavender excuses them and prepares to leave. The merchant hands her a sweet and tells her to use it when she wants to.
They return to the inn to fetch Temerity. He and the drow have retreated upstairs – noises can be heard in the street. Azuul asks if they’re looking for Temerity. Lavender asks her to let him know where they’ve gone. They leave hastily.
Lavender heads straight towards the casino, saying nothing. The rest follow.