When last we left our intrepid adventurers, it is the 17th of Elient, DR 1744, and they are in the Kryptgarden Forest…
Zeek, Velo, Anais, and Wevami (and Jardin) head back to the Waterdavian Caravan. Wevami seems a little spooked by the encounter with the wolves, which Anais attempts to soothe. The two quickly bond over the shenanigans of the bard and the rogue, who are still tree-hopping. Returning to the caravan easily, thanks to Anais’ marking of the trees (and a couple of great survival rolls from Velo), the party divvies up the fire beetle meat.
Velo and Zeek consume theirs raw. Wevami and Anais both cook theirs thoroughly. Everyone agrees they’ve eaten worse things. Anais is starting to get tired of so much meat – she’s lived on the diet of a temple cleric and would really just like oatmeal for breakfast just for once.
It’s approximately 3 days to Amphail, another day to get to the trading post at Red Larch.
Rinn, the stoner half-elf from the porch on the Bargewright Inn, approaches Velo and Zeek (and decidedly NOT Anais), attempting to sell them drugs. He says it will make them smarter. Velo haggles, and then purchases some weird black fungusy stuff for 5 gold pieces. He eats it, in the process of allowing Zeek to pick Rinn’s pockets back for the 5 gold he just paid.
Velo gets very high. This drug – Sves – makes him smarter for 1 minute, gives him bonuses to perception for 1 hour… and then gives him a point of exhaustion for the rest of the day.
Rinn also sells poisons – Stone Joint poison (a slowing poison) and something called Fungal Bile, which makes you very ill. Zeek and Velo haggle with him, and split a vial of Stone Joint poison for 30 gp (3 uses).
The party sets camp at the foot of the slumber hills. Zeek sleeps in the caravan with the leathers that belong to Elsa Roe. Velo volunteers for an early morning watch and proceeds to pass out in a nearby tree, exhausted. Anais offers to take first watch, since the moon will be up. They are set to their posts by Argyra, the paladin of Bahamut (the platinum dragon) – but Anais notices she’s wearing bracers with another emblem – two crossed swords, with a cloud and a descending lightning bolt above them.
Anais asks her fellow watchman – a guard named Jac – about the bracers, as he’s also wearing them. They are the symbol of the “Blades of Change” a Waterdavian fighter/mercenary guild. If you’re skilled with a blade (not so much magic) you can try for a spot there. Anais and the guard swap stories, and she thoroughly freaks him out with her talk of the Moon watching him, and the fact that she’s died and been resurrected. After her watch, the second watch again goes without fail, and then Jac wakes Velo up (unceremoniously) for the final watch.
Velo notices a small dark shape – which turns out to be Wingding, Elsa Roe’s assistant, who is a small red-scaled Kobold. He has a giant wasp in a cage. It is unclear if this is for alchemical research, dinner, or both. (Both. It’s definitely both.)
Jac and Anais meet up again for breakfast, where he proceeds to ask her for a test of her magic. She obliges, making the fire leap up with blue and purple sparks, and scaring the everloving shit out of Geordi, the halfling cook, as well as another of the guards. Velo is very distrustful of this entire operation and attempts to spy on them. Jac admits to Anais that he’s not sure what to make of Velo and Zeek, who are… unusual. That’s a nice way of putting it. Anais reassures Jac that the two are just as much people as anyone else in the caravan.
18th Elient, DR 1744
Rinn is missing from the caravan, and so the party (plus Wevami and Jac) are sent to go find him. They track him to the southeast, to the foothills of the Slumber Hills, following drag marks and Kobold footprints. After squeezing (loudly, and without any stealth whatsoever) through a 40 foot entry tunnel, we leave our adventurers standing in the open foyer of the Kobold’s tunnel, just on this side of a warning batch of bones (which Velo has already crunched through, that was the trap, yes). It’s rocky, soggy, earthy, and gross, and there are bones everywhere. Also Zeek is claustrophobic, sorry for not mentioning that earlier? Surely it’ll not be a problem right.
Until next time…