Session 20 – Family Matters

Campaign II, session 20. Previous: Session 19.

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The party takes a month of downtime in Teryk. Mireya studies in the library working on Knowledge (history), and learns of rumors that the Contessa is with child.

Zydell spends his time practising Disguise. He begins to feel ill after about a week, with fever and chills. Before it gets too bad, he heeds the advice Cresilde gave him and seeks healing from Garalen in the chapel.

Vierath spends his time staring at Huugul, the runed skull. Lirra approaches him and announces her retirement and intent to return to Bastion. ‘Rath responds with a silent nod, and returns his attention to Huugul. You will take me to my bones…? In Vedycaer…? Nod.

Fenmyra spends her time with Garalen studying and practicing her skill with Healing. She keeps her head down and tries to ignore the teasing about her giant, floppy ears. One evening, as she lays down to sleep, she feels a sharp prick in her neck! Under her pillow is a single caltrop and a note, written in Gnomish, in a child’s handwriting: “I hate you.”

As the party prepares to head out to Vedycaer, they buy their own large cart and heavy horse to pull it. Count Roland approaches them with an offer: “My wife is with child, and these lands are dangerous. Our two boys are being tutored in Vedycaer right now, and I would have her return to them. She will leave with the next caravan; will you serve as additional guards to ensure her safe travels?”

The party agrees and sets out. The trip is mostly uneventful, save for a short scare when a few corpses are found in the road. The creatures are nearly human, but with sharpened teeth and claws, and appear to have been dead for some time.

Other than that, the most interesting note during the expedition is the Contessa’s gushing about how much she misses Pashlatine, who always brought her exciting tales of adventure, the latest gossip from Vedycaer, and the prettiest dresses, helping her stay more fashionable than the other contessas of the borderlands. “I’ve been eagerly awaiting her next visit, (she wasn’t much for letters), but she’s been gone for three seasons now. I’ll miss my husband quite dearly while I’m back in town, but perhaps I’ll get to see Pash more often. I sure hope so!”

The caravan passes by Fort Talon, where they briefly stop, where they hear one noteworthy rumor that the Marshal there is looking for adventurers.

When the party arrives in Vedycaer, the Contessa thanks them, pays them, and immediately calls for a litter-bearer to carry her to her family villa in the Lake district. The party asks around and heads towards the Old District to look for the Mink, a local tavern with a prominent reputation.

The next day, Vierath goes to the Citadel of Heaven to have his face healed. His body is fatigued by the restoration, and there is a side effect – he now hears constant whispers from just out of earshot, distracting him. On their way back to the Old District, ‘Rath hears a strangely familiar voice.

“Oh, cousin dear! Have I found you at last?” A drow matriarch named Tessine, cousin of Vierath, catches up to the group. She and ‘Rath exchange some pleasantries, and a deep desire to avoid going home (or seeing their mothers any time soon). When Tessine asks what happened to Espada, ‘Rath quickly says, “Oh, I left him in Bastion. He found this human woman, became obsessed with her tortillas.” ‘Rath starts giving an abridged summary of the group’s adventures – strange necromancers with red and white apples in an underground tree, goblins with this amazing pudding dessert, etc.

As they speak, the group heads over to the Emporium, where they briefly split up. Zydell looks around for a weaponsmith, and the others head to the House of Curiosities, where they survey the wares available. ‘Rath pays cash for a Healing Salve, and attempts to sell the group’s potion of the rampaging bugbear. Unfortunately, the Emporium’s owner, Damonos, is unable to verify the potion’s properties, so they have to pay a visit to the Tower of Knowledge to get it assessed.

Meanwhile, Zydell encounters a gruff dwarf with a rust-colored beard, and tries to buy a masterwork short sword. The dwarf brushes him off, saying he won’t sell to an elf who hasn’t proven their friendship with dwarfkind. A few hours later, when a human visits and requests a similar weapon, the dwarf eyes takes a liking to him. “Sure, I’ll sell you this fine blade, but first, promise me you won’t sell it to an elf.”

“Oh, I never have any business with them, good sir. And would you happen to have any fine chain mail in size for a female gnome?”

And as the larger group returns from the Tower of Knowledge with their newly certified potion, Fenmyra and Mireya note some people tearing down flyers, crumpling them, and tossing them on the ground. Picking one up, they see an invitation for adventurers to meet at the Imperial Charter Inn in a few day’s time. As they speak about it, a robed gentleman with a staff overhears them and introduces himself as Ed (short for Edwither). He has also heard rumors about this gentleman’s family and is interested in pursuing it. After hearing about his arcane prowess, the group agrees to add Ed to their ranks. Mireya notes that the people pulling down these flyers seem to have a similar dress and markings of some kind of criminal guild. The markings harken back to old Caernath, with red wolf heads being prominent.

Finally, with the potion properly certified and sold, the group takes their cash haul back to the Mink for the night. While the others go to bed, Zydell sneaks out and makes his own way back to the temple to have his own stiff scarring restored. Miraculously, he is healed minimal fuss, and will only need a few days rest.

Over the next few days, Mireya and Edwither listen around for additional rumors about the Levonday family. After some questions they believe to be perfectly innocuous, some of the other patrons of the Mink (conspicuously wearing the same red-wolf imagery noted earlier) seem to take offense and start a minor altercation over it. Though no one is injured, an old Caernathi urn on display is shattered, and the two are arrested, along with the ruffians.

After a day of languishing, the ruffians are released, but Mireya and Ed are charged with vandalism. Antonio Furlan, manager of the Mink, insists on maximum penalty. The two have excellent character witnesses pointing out that they clearly intended no harm, but all of the Mink employees uniformly insist that the broken urn was directly their fault. Ultimately, the court finds them guilty and sentences them to a fine to pay for the urn, and whipping as punitive. They court and plaintiff are willing to accept additional coin in lieu of corporal punishment of course…

After this, the pair were no longer welcome at (nor wanted to patronize) the Mink, so the party as a whole left for the Imperial Charter Inn in the Lake District, to continue resting and meet this Wrogarr fellow. When the appointed day arrives, they meet Wrogarr, who tells them all of the following:

• An introduction – he has married into the Levonday family, and now his sister-in-law has gone missing. After several seasons and much prayer, he and his wife Luli have decided to seek help from adventurers.

• A brief summary of Pash’s (known) adventuring life:

  • Earlier this year, Luli’s brother Vason was found dead. The body was found by her estranged sister, Pashlatine, who had chosen a life of adventure rather than settling down to an arranged marriage.

  • Luli’s parents hired a Sakkalin watch-hound (talking wolf) named Dreyfuss to investigate. Dreyfuss concluded that Vason had been infected by a wererat and taken his own life rather than risk infecting his family. Dreyfuss then continued to have adventures with Pashlatine.

  • While Pashlatine and Dreyfuss were on such an adventure, Luli’s parents disappeared during a visit to Vedycaer. Their carriage was found empty, with no signs of a struggle. A thorough search was conducted by the local watch found no leads.

  • After two months, as Luli and Wrogarr are attempting to manage the estate, Pash and her crew returned from their adventures, just in time to attend the unsealing of their parents’ will. The will unexpectedly left the family estate to Pashlatine, despite her estrangement

  • Initially, Luli was furious and planned to contest the will. However, Pashlatine convinced her that the parents had been murdered and that her crew could solve the mystery.

  • A wealthy Caernathi businessman, Lucius Furlan, began trying to court Pashlatine. Pash suspected Lucius of criminal ties, and that he might have been involved in their parents’ death; Pash was planning to lead him on in an attempt to discover more.

  • Maxwell Silvermane, leader of a top gladiatorial company in Vedycaer, arrived as a competitor to Lucius in courting Pash. Something about Maxwell frightened Pash, who advised Luli to stay at the family’s country estate, for her own safety.

  • At Pash’s urging, Luli made a big public show of being “shoved off” by her “ungrateful sister” in hopes that this would give Pash cover to further investigate Lucius and Maxwell.

  • Pash and Dreyfuss visited the estate and interviewed many of the servants. They then returned to Vedycaer to continue their investigation.

  • A few days later, Pash and her adventuring companions were seen leaving Vedycaer heading north.

  • This was about three months ago, we have not heard from Pash or Dreyfuss since. One of Pash’s companions, a reforged named Casino, sent a letter to the Levonday estate that included a map of their previous travels.

The party is sympathetic, but unwilling to commit – they will reconvene with Wrogarr at a future date once they have settled some other business, such as finding the bones belonging to this talking skull…