Day 23 (continued)
The party gathers in the communal areas of the ship. Lavender is withdrawn after her break with Anaphel. Theren feels nostalgic for where they began their quest together. Gage is looking for gentry after having read the letters.
Temerity is looking for suspicious characters and anyone who still might be cursed. Aurius sniffs around and he stops in front of a ship worker arguing with a small older lady halfling. Temerity tries to eavesdrop on the conversation. He hears the worker saying that they are not responsible for any lost belongings. The old lady is belligerent – her bag is missing. The ship worker is very apologetic but refuses to pay for the lost goods.
Temerity interrupts and asks for the details of the issue. He asks if she has anything that would smell like the missing bag. She offers her handkerchief. Korako gives it a sniff, nods and hops off. Korako wanders round the whole room and ends up next to the halfling lady – the bag was next to the lady the whole time, but on the other side than the one she was inspecting.
She asks Theren about an inn. Taken aback, Theren explains that they all met originally at an inn near here and he hopes to go there. The old lady wants to accompany them to the inn. Theren looks at the rest of the party beseechingly for help with this unexpected encounter.
The party discusses this. Lavender speaks to the old lady, who asks after her grandmother. Lavender is caught off guard but has no idea who this lady is. She explains that she was married to the old governor of Avalon – Clarence Mayfield – this is Mary-Ann Mayfield.
Lavender explains that she has not seen them for a while but they are well. Mary-Ann mentions Orris Locke – the party looks sharply at her. She explains that she is going to collect her goddaughter’s child in Adalens to go on a tour with them. Lavender asks if they can escort her to Adalens. Mary-Ann expresses her wishes to head to the inn.
They all disembark and head to an inn called The Blushing Manatee – it is better than the inn that they stayed in last time. Th is disappointed that it’s a different place. It is a large, well-used inn. Everything in the inn is muted grey and beige. There is generic art on the wall.
The receptionist is a half-orc whose suit doesn’t fit properly. He looks bored and smiles a platitude at them. Temerity casts minor illusion which overlays one of the pictures with a gnome orgy. He comments upon it to the receptionist, who doesn’t look up for his work and tells them that they can buy a print from somewhere if they like it. Temerity manages to get his attention to the painting. The receptionist is mad. Mary-Ann demands that the rooms are sorted as expediently as possible. She demands a suite to herself and pays for it. Lavender pays for a double for herself and Anaphel and a triple for Theren, Temerity and Gage.
Mary-Ann heads to the lift to ascend to the 3rd floor. She says she’ll meet them in the bar in 10 minutes. Temerity asks the half-orc where the bar is and wanders off towards it tuning his lute.
Mary-Ann heads down to the bar with her knitting. Gage and Theren dump their gear and also head down to the bar. Anaphel and Lavender go to their room. There is no eye contact from Anaphel towards Lavender. Anaphel sits on the bed staring out of the window overlooking the city. Lavender lets the silence hang before broaching the subject of their animosity with Anaphel. Anaphel tries to initiate a conversation but cannot. Lavender explains that she didn’t know about the ring, simply that it was her brother’s. She pledges to fix this. There is an emotion on Ana’s face of pure fear – they are scared of being contained within a jewel like that. Lavender tries to reassure them that she would never let that happen. Anaphel wishes she had told them sooner – Lavender reaffirms that she didn’t know and has never used it. Anaphel asks if she knows who is inside it but Lavender doesn’t. She attuned to it and had a vision of Orris killing people, cutting them down with a scythe. Anaphel says that whomever is in there could have been trying to communicate with her. Lavender insists that that is not what Orris is like – she is doubting that her brother is still a good person. Lavender explains who Orris is but cannot believe that her brother is a bad person. Anaphel asks if Lavender wants to keep the ring on. She replies that she only kept it on to keep it safe. Anaphel and Lavender make up with each other.
Down in the bar, Temerity is performing with the menagerie. Theren and Gage are nursing drinks. Mary-Ann is knitting. Anaphel and Lavender enter the bar together and they all notice the difference between the pair.
Mary-Ann starts speaking to Theren, asking about his life. He winces when she says his name and explains about the curse. He says that he wandered for a while but then met these people and they are now hunting necromancers. He says that it’s nice having a purpose again. Gage explains that he’s a sellsword and used to work for the necromancers. She asks Temerity if he is a bard – he performs an elaborate routine to display his prowess.
Lavender introduces Anaphel to Mary-Ann. Anaphel explains that their mother is the goddess Auriel. Auriel is not a common name of a goddess, so Mary-Ann asks if Auriel is a minor goddess and the room chills unexpectedly. Lavender explains that Auriel is forgotten.
Mary-Ann buys another round of drinks for everyone. She argues with a server about table service but in the end, Lavender heads to the bar to collect the drinks. Temerity heads her off and gets the drinks instead.
The bartender was impressed with Temerity’s performance and offers a round of drinks on the house. He provides them with a huge, unlabelled bottle that he claims is guaranteed to mess up anyone. Temerity brings over the bottle and plonks it down on the table . Gage takes a sniff – the fumes make him light headed and feel incredibly good. Temerity persuades the party to drink the drink, though it seems suspicious. The fumes have already seeped out and Temerity is intoxicated.
Everyone tries the drink: Lavender is fine; Gage passes out after a sip; Temerity is already drunk; Anaphel, Theren and Mary-Ann are tipsy. Temerity jumps onto the table and begins trying to tap dance. He accidentally steps on Aurius’s tail, who shrieks and knocks Chikatika into the bottle, splashing it everywhere. A good number of the people in the bar become tipsy off the fumes and Theren vomits from the fumes.
A bouncer asks them to leave back to their rooms. Lavender agrees to put Temerity to bed. Lavender picks up Gage and they all stagger back up to the rooms .
Day 24
Next morning, the party are suffering the after-effects: Lavender is fine; Anaphel is a little hung-over but is generally fine; Mary-Ann is right as rain; Theren has a little headache but is otherwise OK; Gage has a throbbing head; Temerity is green.
They all head down for breakfast. Anaphel places their hand on Gage’s shoulder as he seems near to tears from the pain in his head. He nibbles a bit of bread. They get the letters out over breakfast.
They pore over them. The first two are from Orris, but they know not to whom. AL is one of the twins for the third letter, but they don’t know who GL is that the letter is written to.
Letter 4 reads: Walls weep shadow. Stones remember pain. They are redrawing the lines. The old arches tremble. No trust in the cities sleep.
They work out that there’s something to do with an old, rejuvenated part of the city – something has happened in a part of the city that has been renovated.
Mary-Ann knows that in Durvish City there was an attack from the direction of The Spell Scar and that part of the city is being rejuvenated, but it could be Adalens as well, as that also has parts of the city that are being renovated.
Letter 5 reads: Operation green spill is active. The silent invaders advance. Its tendrils grasp the sun. The gentle giant is unprepared. Deploy the wet squad. Location the third bush. East of the gilded swan’s nest. The ducks know nothing.
Mary-Ann knows The Gilded Swan is a tavern. Now that they’re back in Durvish City, Theren and Lavender remember that they know that this is a tavern in Durvish City – a very upmarket tavern.
Lavender seems keen to go to Adalens first, rather than follow the new leads. Theren wants to go to the Gilded Swan. Mary-Ann also wants to visit the tavern.
They head to the Gilded Swan. It is covered in finery – gold leaf, stained glass windows, etc. Gage remembers from the letter: location the third bush, east of the gilded swan’s nest. He thinks back to his wilderness time. These bushes are not native to Durvish City. They’re growing up the side of the building and creeping over the path. It almost looked like it was growing as he was watching. Theren is drawn towards the bush. It is growing faster than normal – something is altering it to make it grow fast. Mary-Ann tells Gage to dig up the bush.
Theren reads out the remainder of the 5th letter. Mary-Ann remembers that the owner is a half-goliath named Drolass – he is new money and likes flaunting his wealth. They assume that someone is trying to assassinate the proprietor of the Gilded Swan.
Gage digs up the roots of the bush. Lavender steps on one of the tendrils but it continues growing. Gage is pulling at the roots but the roots are growing back faster than he can pull them up. The tendrils are approaching a window higher up. Gage tries climbing up the tendrils but becomes trapped in the vines. Theren uses ray of frost at the root of the plant – the root is destroyed but quickly grows back. The plant is now growing faster and is blocking up the windows. Temerity casts dispel magic and nothing happens.
Mary-Ann inspects the plant. There’s something sticky on the plant that is not part of the plant. Theren cannot tell much about the sticky fluid. Mary-Ann sees in the back garden that there is a pond with various water fowl on it. Theren looks into the pond and sees fish, his own reflection and rocks. Nothing of significance is located within.
Temerity polymorphs himself into a giant ape and tries to rip the plant apart. He frees Gage but doesn’t manage to stop it growing. Temerity now tries, with Lavender’s help, to uproot the plant. Temerity uncovers an extensive root system and slows its growth down considerably. Mary-Ann considers deeply what is happening. She hears behind her some giggling from the bushes about 40 ft away.
She hears rustling in the bushes. There are humanoid figures in there. They are smaller than her and there are approximately 4 or 5 of them. She tries to persuade them out of the bush using chocolates. There is muttering from within the bushes. A small child, covered in dirt, with a drawing on his hand, tumbles out of the bush. Mary-Ann offers him some chocolate but he is reluctant. She asks how long they’ve been playing in the bushes. She promises to give him chocolate if he speaks to her. A voice from the bushes tells Jimmy not to. She offers more chocolate for information. Jimmy says that maybe they have some rotten eggs and that after the plant covers the windows, they have to cover the building with rotten eggs. The person who told them to wore a cloak but wasn’t very tall – he will come back and give them food when they egg the place. He will drop the food off at their special place. She asks the child about the symbol on his hand – Jimmy says that the symbol is for their gang. Mary-Ann relays back to the party that this is a prank.
Anaphel grabs the giant ape and forces him to change back into a tiefling. Lavender is grumpy that they’ve wasted half a day on a mere prank. She glares at Theren.
They head to the south-east of Durvish City and locate a horse-drawn wagon. The journey to Onasea – a small port – takes a few hours. They are making progress but a thick fog descends over the path – the horses slow right down. The driver stops the wagon as the fog becomes too thick to see.
A shout comes from the side of the road and arrows fly past. A group of bandits appears, containing a captain, 4 marauders, 2 brutes and 2 magical tricksters, but to begin with, they can only see the first few marauders through the fog.
Gage climbs a tree and shoots an arrow at one of the lead marauders. It thuds into his shoulder and he screams in agony. He uses hunter’s mark on the marauder behind the one he hit. Mary-Ann hides behind Lavender and sneak attacks the other lead marauder with her short bow. The arrow hits solidly into his arm. The brutes move out of the fog and one slams Lavender across the chest with a bough. The other brute dashes forwards to get in range. The first of the unseen mages fires magic arrows at Temerity but both fly straight past. The other mage fires magic arrows at Lavender but they both miss too. Theren casts hunger of Hadar, encompassing all of the marauders, the brute attacking Lavender and the captain within it. The fog is blasted by a glaring light from the spell. All of the marauders take cold damage from Hadar. The two injured marauders move forwards. The one hit by Mary-Ann is now out of the spell’s area of effect but the one hit by Gage is not. The two uninjured marauders move backwards and are also out of it and use crossbows against Temerity. The one wounded by Gage swings at Lavender but misses. The one wounded by Mary-Ann swings at Temerity and hits him. Temerity uses eldritch blast against the marauder attacking him but both blasts miss. He provides bardic inspiration to Lavender. Lavender rages and attacks the marauder before her with divine smite. Having already been grievously injured by Gage, the marauder dies. She turns and attacks the brute attacking her on the rebound, slashing it across the stomach. The captain takes cold damage from Hadar. He shoots heavy crossbow attacks against Lavender. One hits, but minimally. He shouts something but no-one can understand him. He moves out of Hadar. Anaphel blesses Lavender, Temerity, Theren and Mary-Ann.