Session 36
Fact Sheet This tea brings all the killers to my yard, and I'm like...what??
Players present: Ecchima, Marty, Meinhart en Tuur. Dins was our GM and Vinnie was excused.
Date: 17-01-2024
Date in-universe: it’s Wednesday afternoon by the time we leave the dwarvish eatery The Spoon and Fork
Major developments:
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Previously: session 35 Manners maketh Man
Up next: Session 37 Mr. Mountainverse, mother Mari-El-le and Ms. Maya
Notes
Hali and Storm are still staring in mounting horror at Reve Mehrabi, present and smirking in the hallway outside our bedrooms!
She goes on to explain she came to The Vale to turn over a new leaf and start a new life. And what better way than accepting an apprenticeship in the smithy under her father’s tutelage? Storm can’t keep from blurting out “Wait your father is here? I thought Ridwan that kind shopkeeper in Damanhour was your father?!”. Reva grins that Ridwan is her uncle, how do we know him? Storm carries on that Ridwan was kind to us. When Reva explains that Osgar the smith is her father, Storm adds that we also know him & he was kind to us too. Reva smirks that she let us live, and leave with her dagger, wasn’t that kind too? Clearly, mercy runs in her family?
Speaking of the smithy, she makes a point of welcoming “our creepy friend with the black sword”. She doesn’t figure her father & she can fully repair or purify such cursed items, but Osgar would surely take a look if she asked.
Speaking of cursed items, she’ll also take her bloodletting dagger, if we’re interested in returning it. As we hesitate, she spills the tea: it sends the soul of anyone killed with it straight to the blood pool Na’Dir made out of the desecrated moon pool in Lunaire’s shrine, right? She never cared, because if you’re at the point you want to end someone’s life with violence, you’re not going to be bothered about their afterlife, right?
Even as Hali nods pensively, Storm gawps at her in total horror. In the shock of the moment, he blurts out “shall we break bread together to celebrate your new life?”. Horrified at his own words, Storm looks imploringly at Hali to find a way out, but Reva has already cheerfully accepted: after a meal together, she figures we’ll be fully even.
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Storm capitulates & leads the way to the taproom where Wendy is already serving a few people breakfast. Storm waves her over: we’ve met your charming niece, and what do you know? We’ve already run into her on our travels! Wendy is a little suspicious about how we know Reva, but family tea is not for public consumption. So, she just starts serving us breakfast. When Storm mentions that The Vale’s mushrooms are famous far and wide, Wendy chortles that she’s a decent cook, but everyone knows that the Eladrin Lucerne is the best cook when it comes to mushrooms. Even with Lucerne’s herbs, Wendy doesn’t quite live up to the original recipe, and that’s the tea!
Wendy also hands over a letter from Maya Ghorann (see images). With a small measure of shock, we realize we didn’t really try to find information about Magnus Ghorann when we were aboard the Surya for our conversation with captain Io Halloran. We were too wrapped up in our suspicions that it was captain John Magpie who hired Magnus for his skills as an enchanter.
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At this point, Fyllion comes downstairs, yawning from a bad night: he startled awake at every minor noise, wondering if it’s Simeon seeking a way into his bedroom. He makes it to the table with his eyes half-closed… and when he sees Reva at our table, he freezes and snaps “I'm off to Sastruga”. As soon as he’s out of sight of everyone, he changes back into Ophelia.
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At the table, Storm and Hali get over the awkwardness of the subject & interrogate Reva about the pound of flesh she exacted from Simeon:
- she attacked Simeon at the edge of the wild woods several days ago
- she cut out his tattoo & another body part which she won't reveal: did she castrate him, or cut off his arm, or something else?
- she took his horse & left him there, bleeding heavily.
When Ezra comes down with bags under their eyes and Jacob's jacket in their hands, Storm compliments their work: the jacket is truly transformed into something beautiful. Ezra smiles gratefully. It inspires Storm to come clean about his planned scam about the bag of holding. He lays out the options he had in mind:
- exchange the bag of holding (and maybe some extra cash) for faked messaging paper (Storm shows the fake version he’s been working on with Wendy’s order paper & some druidcraft & explains he’s warned Jacob that their correspondence would have to be a secret from Ezra, so no need to worry if the answer takes a while)
- exchange the bag of holding (and maybe some extra cash) for the real messaging paper
- come clean about the scam and let it go
With an unexpected amount of gleeful stars in their eyes, Ezra agrees to the scam: their father appears to be trying to be better, for Ezra’s sake and for the whole family’s sake, but he was pretty shitty for a long time, so a prank like this is exactly what he deserves. We make a plan to wait till Jacob contacts Storm with news about the bag, and then the 3 of us will head over. We’ll keep pretending that only Storm is aware of the bag of holding/messaging paper exchange, but Ezra (with Jacob’s jacket) and Hali (as his nimble-fingered nurse) will distract him so the fake messaging paper isn’t discovered.
We see El wave at us as they head to the stable to check on Madonna & spend some quality time brushing her.
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Hali spends a while with the recovered pages from her compendium. She’d already spotted multiple fire creatures and several Fey beings, but now she takes a closer look and see:
- an entry on Arcon, a powerful celestial
- an entry on Daeis the deceiver, including a detailed illustration of a gigantic devil. He looks terrifying
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Ophelia stomps through the streets towards Sastruga’s cottage. Soon, her attention is diverted, as she notices an older Eladrin walking in the same direction, gossamer robes trailing behind him (see Images).
Eventually the guy addresses Ophelia: “since my home is the only thing in this direction, I assume you are looking for me? I’m Sastruga”. When Ophelia answers that she’s indeed looking for him & introduces herself, he replies: “Oh yes, my nephew Pandolf has been raving about you. He informed you were looking into your heritage, and hopeful about some of the traditional instruments I brought from the Fey Wild, weren’t you? I have several I haven’t played in a while, so passing on our traditions as a cultural leader is nice”.
When they reach Sastruga’s cottage, Poinsettia is sitting on the window sill, grumpily asking if Sastruga has an answer ready. Since Sastruga clearly didn't sleep at home, he has no clue what the pixie is talking about. When the pixie explains about the letter he delivered, Sastruga grumbles that he’s already explained several times that entering someone’s home isn’t the done thing in the mortal plane, but these messenger pixies are having a hard time to grasp the concept.
Sastruga leads Ophelia into his cottage. She confirms our impression from the day before: it’s completely decorated in a cozy winter theme, with icicles and snowflakes… who knew the Winter Court of the Gloaming Side could look so quaint?
At a quick glance, Ophelia spots several instruments hanging on the walls:
- a large obsidian hunting horn
- a white viola
- a lyre carved from dark wood with a swirling motif of vines (see images)
Ophelia is drawn to the lyre, but also enquires about the horn. Sastruga explains it was linked to his previous position in the Fey Wild, it summons a bunch of yeth hounds. Not something a nice young lady like Hali should mess about with, nor even an old guy like Sastruga.
Politely Ophelia turns to the lyre, and enquires about the price. Sastruga mentions he’d prefer to give it away, but alas as a cultural leader for the Eladrin in The Vale (being old and a longtime resident and all), planning all these events for the youth requires funds… after a genteel bit of haggling, between Sastruga’s desired price of 600 gold pieces and 360 gold pieces which represent all that Ophelia owns in this plane, they agree to a sum of 450 gold pieces, as well as a performance on the unique relic from the Fey Wild Sastruga is about to hand over.
Diffidently, Sastruga tells Ophelia he’d like to give her some advice: “It's good that you're compensating for the fact that you can't grow your own head foliage. However, the crown you've chosen is a bit gauche, you see: appropriating the golden laurels from the Arch Fey is a misstep to begin with, but the flowers you’ve chosen are an homage to the dead Arch Fey you keep talking about”.
Ophelia interjects that she heard rumours from the south that Fyllion lives.
Sastruga looks surprised, but then muses that we’re living in the land of Clíodhna, and under the guidance of the Lady of the Veil, all is possible, although this Fyllion is not the first to fall foul of the queen of the Gloaming Court. In fact, he thinks Clíodhna, the first of the dead, would be a more appropriate inspiration for Ophelia’s crown than this slightly irrelevant Arch Fey who didn’t have a dominion and only lived for a short time.
As Ophelia thinks over Sastruga’s advice, Sastruga quickly peeks at the letter Poinsettia delivered. Ophelia is in shock when she hears him mutter "fuck" under his breath. Blinking quickly, he focuses back on Ophelia and starts hustling her out: let me wrap up the harp and if you pay what you can now, I’ll let you know when Pandolf organizes his dinner for his son.
Ophelia hands over the 350 gold pieces she can pay now. Sastruga asks where she’s been hearing these rumours about Fyllion being alive. Ophelia giggles that it’s not her tea to spill, but if Sastruga is going to insist, she’ll tell him it was somewhere on the coasts next to Koh’Shar, only he didn’t hear it from her, alright? When Sastruga frowns that Koh’Shar is a desert town, Ophelia shrugs that you reach a coast eventually, if you go far enough east, or was it west? A desert is like a sea of sand, after all, and they have camels there, animals they call the ship of the desert!
As soon as Ophelia is outside and sees that Poinsettia is gone, Ophelia casts "detect thoughts". At the surface level, she picks up "how could he be alive, how is that possible"... but she resists the temptation to dig deeper, because of the risk that Sastruga would pick up on her mental invasion.
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Back at the Iron Oar Inn, Storm notices how everyone is busy with their little morning rituals. Seizing the bull by his horns, he decides to check on Poinsettia. When no one answers his knock, he kicks the door lock in two swift kicks. The first failed one causes Wendy to yell up from the taproom, but when she doesn’t hear anything else, she keeps occupied with breakfast. As he slips inside, Storm feels a little claustrophobic in this small room. The bed is clearly slept in, but there is nothing personal to find. All Storm can do, is scrape together some more pixie dust. Now he has 1,5 vials of the stuff that can make you fly!
In an attempt to avoid detection, especially after the destruction of the door, Storm decides to climb through the tiny window. After some wriggling, he lands next to the stables, where Simeon's horse (see images), Lapis and Madonna turn their head towards him. Casting “comprehend languages”, Storm tries to talk to them: he wants to know if the horse knows where Simeon is and if he could carry some emergency supplies to him. When the horse doesn’t respond, Storm turns first to Lapis and then to Madonna, perhaps they’d be able to translate? However, none of them speak a language that responds to Storm’s spell.
Slightly despondent, Storm returns to the tap room, where Hali and Ezra are talking to the different guests, announcing the upcoming performance.
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Ophelia frolics in, over the moon with her lyre for a slightly reformed liar. Hali is surprised Ophelia bought an instrument she’s not proficient in, but Ophelia is sure her rizz will overcome her lack of practice. Hali offers an extra lesson on the bagpipes, but Ophelia snorts that she can (no offence) probably improvise better on any instrument than Hali can perform with practice.
After an awkward beat of silence, Ophelia ploughs on and asks if Hali is still willing and able to fund her music. She haggled the price down, but she still needs 100 gold pieces. Hali smiles that that’s okay.
Ophelia starts practising. It's of a much higher quality than the instruments she’s used to, and it’s also the first magical instrument she's ever played. It has an inherent melancholy, a wintery feeling of lamentation, but it bends easily enough to Ophelia's will to play the scales and tunes she has in mind. As she looks up, she mentions she also promised to play at a dinner with Pandolf.
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Poinsettia is sitting at the bar, eating a quail egg for a late breakfast. When he hears Ophelia talk about Sastruga, he turns to our table to implore us to remind the old Eladrin to reply as quickly as possible to the letter. It’s part of a regular exchange of reports, you see, and there’s been a delay of several months while the portal was closed. Sneakily Ophelia challenges and teases him till he spills what he thinks the letter might have said. Poinsettia spills the tea:
- someone who the Fey Wild thought dead, might be alive
- a few months ago, some non-fae caused a ruckus in the Fey Wild
- some yeth hounds have mysteriously disappeared
Ophelia asks if the survivor is Fyllion. Poinsettia confirms. Ophelia repeats the "rumours from the south" she heard. When Poinsettia wants to start an official report, Ophelia demands an exchange of information. Poinsettia stipulates that he can only trade his own secrets. When Ophelia hesitates to commit, Storm suggests they both write down the information & then exchange papers. Ophelia repeats the nonsense about the sea of sand east and west of Koh’Shar, while Poinsettia admits he is gay, with the exhortation Ophelia is not to tell a-n-y-o-n-e!
The pixie tuts that he’s a pixie from the endless winter night icefields in fealty to the Gloaming Courts & he detests the unstoppable sunshine in the mortal plane. Storm suggests he gets a cocktail parasol but Wendy doesn’t have such fancy things in stock.
Ophelia asks if he can deliver something, say if she were to send some fan mail to a mysterious satyr Ifykon, who lives on the edge of the Summer Lands. Poinsettia points out that the Dawning territories are a bit out of his wheel house, but he agrees he'll find someone to deliver it.
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As we walk over to Sastruga to pay the remaining 100 gold, Storm tries to discreetly ask if Ezra could ask Simeon's horse if the horse wants to go find Simeon with emergency supplies... Ezra is very hesitant when they hear the details of the wounds and especially the time frame. Unfortunately Ophelia overhears their conversation. She insists on hearing more, so Ezra describes all the potential wounds, in gruesome detail. Ophelia is very confused about both the avalanche of information and the way it makes her feel.
Ezra mostly reassures her by stressing that she fell for a cockroach of a man, so if anyone is able to survive, it’s bound to be Simeon, no matter how badly Reva thinks she hurt him.
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Sastruga is working in his garden & is pleased that Ophelia is so prompt with the remaining payment. Ophelia titters on and on about the performances she’ll be able to give with this lyre and how Hali will enliven everything with her bagpipes. Sastruga is speechless when he hears that such a beautiful person is playing the horrifying bagpipes.
Ophelia slips in a mention of Poinsettia sort of confirming the rumour of Fyllion being alive. Sastruga explains the portal keeper and her lover the arch mage died. He’s sad about losing his friend Lutiel but whatever happened there, at least the portal is open again. He wonders if Fyllion took up a spectral form, like Clíodhna before him.
Sastruga wonders if we'll all join the dinner & the performance - we look forward to seeing Mi'kal, but we don't want to intrude on the Eladrin reunion, so it’ll probably only be Ophelia.
As we're leaving, Ophelia casts "detect thoughts" again: she can tell he's taking stock of our numbers & our weapons, but because of a NATURAL ONE, she figures it's nothing to worry about.
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We arrive at the smithy! The bell tinkles but barely makes it over the hammering Osgar is doing. As soon as he sees us, he greets us jovially. He's ready with the silvered arrows & the silvered blade. And we already paid, so we’re all set.
Before we leave, Storm wonders if we should give Aqueel a silvered nail. That’s less dangerous than a knife, right? Unfortunately, as soon as Storm hands Aqueel the sturdiest nail he can find, the poor kid staggers under its weight. Hali and Ezra convince Storm it’s still a bad idea to arm Aqueel. We’ll just have to step up our attention and keep him safe from the werewolf in town or any other danger.
Reva overhears Storm fretting about the werewolf & grins that silver weapons aren’t the only thing that can keep you safe anyway, and even a young marid can defend himself quite well. Aqueel squeaks that that’s true. Storm asks if Osgar won't give his daughter any silvered weapons? He boasts that she has a cursed dagger so she can take care of herself. Storm quickly repeats the effects of the dagger so Ophelia knows as well. Ophelia thinks she's the best person to have the dagger, if she would have a weapon like that: she doesn't kill, after all.
Osgar is a bit upset that Reva gave away or lost her mother's dagger, but Reva has her mother's earring (which El gave her in session 19). She’s turned it into a pendant & is content with this non-violent memento.
Osgar explains that he can work with El's blade : he could insert the sunstone or the voidstone in the pommel.
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As we're sauntering through town, we hear moist feet slapping on the cobblestones: it's Kekoa who has news about ships for us! A guy he's worked with in the past, Marsten, will be here in a few days with a delivery. We could meet him and see, if we can wait a few days… Ezra and Hali vaguely recognize the name as an independent trader with a small fleet of delivery ships.
After he’s delivered his message to our captain, he shuffles Hali off to the side a little. He takes a lotus flower out of his satchel. Scuffing his toe in the sand and with a hand in his neck to show off his lats, he hands it over to Hali: “I used to think lotus flowers were the prettiest thing under water, but since I’ve met you, I’ve come to realize that maybe I was wrong about that. I thought you could wear it in your hair…”. Hali says it's not really her style but thanks him for the gift anyway.
Sotto voce, Ezra makes a bet with Ophelia: Ezra thinks that Kekoa will never give up but Hali will never give in, while Ophelia encourages him for the thoughtful gesture & gives him a bardic inspiration.
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We continue our meandering through the town and stop by the stables, so Ezra can try to talk to the horse. Ophelia gives Ezra a bardic inspiration.
- Ezra: good day to you
- horse: what is it
- Ezra: my friend has some inquiries
- horse: what's an inquiry and do you have sugar cubes
- Ezra asks if anyone has a sugar cube, so Hali offers a goodberry
- horse: weird sugar but delicious
- Ezra: we'd like to know if someone stole you
- horse: yes, this loud lady got on my back
- Ezra: what happened
- horse: loud lady jumped from bush & master fell from my back. She slashed at him and they talked a lot in human language. I ran away a bit & then loud lady came to find me. She was red and warm and wet, and now she is new new master
- Ezra: you trust people really quickly, no?
- horse: yes, I was trained to be nice to people. I no longer eat fingers as I once did
- Ezra turns to Storm: what else do you want to ask
- Storm wants to know if the horse can find his master & can he bring an emergency pack to his master & Ezra relays the question
- horse: well, I don't know where this master is, he stole me 2 weeks ago
- Ezra: was your previous previous master in the city in the sand, Koh'Shar?
- horse: yes it was too hot there. That fancy guy with a nice turban had a stable full of horses like me.
When Ezra summarizes the conversation, Storm sighs in disappointment: “I thought this black beauty dream horse and the rebellious bad boy were lifelong companions, I was clearly mistaken in Simeon's character”. Ezra spots a crow loitering on the dung heap next to the stables. For a second they cock their heads in the same directions & then they start a conversation:
- Ezra: what are you doing
- crow: listening wherever there are suspicious travellers
- Ezra: do you know about the werewolf?
- crow: that's classified & you shouldn't talk about that monster running in the streets! I can't say more or master will kill me again
- Ezra: your master will kill you again?
- crow: it is what it is, right? If I didn't want to get killed, I shouldn't have been so throwable
- Ezra: I don't know what to say to that
- crow: you sound like a good captain, maybe I should stop spying on you
As the crow flaps away towards the mining district, Ezra shares what the bird said. Hali wonders if the crow works for the Surya. We can’t think of anyone else…
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We start walking to the eatery The Spoon & Fork, to investigate where the werewolf incident happened. Ezra feels the lingering effects of their spell, quietly sniggering to themselves over the antics of the animals in The Vale:
- another crow just snaps “the fuck you’re staring at”
- 2 horses pulling a produce wagon “did you see that horse in the inn? They say she pulls a whole house all by herself, and with an ass that fat I’d believe it, yowerz” (see images)
- Some street cats are comparing the best homes to beg for a bowl of milk
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We reach the Spoon and Fork (see images). Many dwarves just spend their entire lives underground, but this eatery caters to a mix of dwarves and passers-by. When we walk up, we see traces of the destruction: an open space where the seating was destroyed & huge scratches in the outside planks. The people in & around the eatery are a little hesitant still, so the waitress is very happy to see a group of 6, even though it's only for lunch.
The waitress Helena explains they offer a very rustic menu, also a mix of dwarvish cuisine and "exotic surface ingredients".
- Ezra orders a fish dish and Aqueel happily follows suit
- Storm asks the chef's recommendation & gets a vegetarian mushroom stew
- Ophelia wants red meat right off the bone, which delights Helena no end
- Hali asks for the specialty, which turns out to be a spicy mushroom skewer (Hali asks for mild, because we know that dwarves have a stronger constitution than most). El doesn’t want to be outdone, so they order the same thing.
There are a few dwarves, but their lunchtime crowd is clearly smaller than usual.
We ask Helena the waitress about "the incident", and she sighs that that's all tall people have been asking about: the city guard and the soldiers from that Rosarian ship, and now us. Still, it hardly takes any prodding to get her to serve the tea piping hot:
- everyone who passed, was dwarven: another waitress & a co-worker of the werewolf (we express our condolences, but Helena is mostly relieved that she wasn't working that night)
- humans arrived & Grewishka the werewolf ran away
- by human law he should be hanged immediately but she feels he should be tried in a dwarven court
- he came here with his sweetheart, but Helena doesn't know her, she must be from another district
- his coworkers are eating here right now
Ezra reassures Helena that we didn't take the guilds' offer to hunt Grewishka down. Helena is relieved we're okay people, but she's disappointed there's hunting parties being sent out.
She also thinks the Eladrin are behind the accidental moon, it's always something with any group of people who aren't dwarves. After she rants about humans and halflings, drow and Eladrin and elves, we try to gently call out her racism, but she digs in her heels about the gnomes who shorted the whole town with a lacking ore delivery.
Giving up on her attitude, we distract her by ordering some more drinks, offering her one and sending some to the coworkers, in the hopes we'll be able to talk to them. We also send our compliments to the chef. When the table of coworkers waves, we nod back & then ignore them.
Ophelia pays our entire tab with one of her last 15 gold pieces: she calls it a contribution to the repairs and also offers a concert tomorrow night, so the Spoon & Fork can spread the word and set up some arrangements for admittance fees. As Ophelia notices that Helena hesitates, Ophelia offers to contact her friend "Garald Mountainverse" to perform. It’s a talented dwarf, who’s probably more to The Spoon and Fork’s taste. Helena nods that she'll probably have an easier time to convince the owner to let this dwarf perform.
Ezra hustles us out the door with a last thank you to Helena and a friendly wave to Grewishka’s colleagues.
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Once we’re in the street, Storm asks our young captain why we didn’t lean on those guys right now? Grab one by the throat? Pick up the smallest & throw him around? Sure, dwarves are less throwable than crows, but Storm reckons he can still make it work. Oh, wait, is that why Ezra wanted to wait, so we can practise with tossing Aqueel in the river? Aqueel shrieks in excitement, even as Hali and Ezra glare at Storm. Taken aback by their glares, Storm wonders if perhaps it’s better to train with Garald…? Ophelia smiles with all her teeth and promises she’ll stab Storm to death with the bloodletting dagger.
As we cross a busy street, we spot a young kid. He seems to accost any redheaded people he can see: he’s clearly looking for someone whom he can’t find. Ophelia intercepts him & the kid explains that he’s looking for a redheaded Elf named Fyllion, because he has a note to deliver. Ophelia chirps that Fyllion is her friend, so she can deliver the note for him. The kid beams happily and chirps right back: “the guy said you’d give me a gold piece for delivering it”.
Ophelia barely even notices that she’s handing over the coin, because her eyes are already glued to the shakily written note, as if someone scribbled it with their non-dominant hand… Ophelia reads Simeon’s breakup note out loud, and sniffs that she doesn’t even understand why this guy thinks she was committed to or even impressed by him.
Storyline
Previously: session 35 Manners maketh Man
Up next: Session 37
