Session 6: October 24, 2023: Eyes on the Prize (22nd Day of Springrise, 1165 AS)

Session 6: October 24, 2023 (22nd Day of Springrise, 1165 AS)

Dramatis Personae:

• Echo, Wolfkin Hunter, played by Mike "I told you it was in this direction" P.
• Kelter Tealeaf, Halfling Rogue, played by Mike "Noted Lothario" Y.
• Vinny Boombatz, Dwarven Fighter, played by Eric "Hammer Time" M.

Quod Occurrit:

The Locals are Kind of Weird

The party scanned Pelagia from afar, its four holy monoliths rising into the fog. Echo recalls some lore of the town. This is where humans were said to first set foot in Ravenland. Recently there's been something happening regarding the "Gift of the Sea". Apparently there's some big prize in a stone chest waiting to be claimed by someone capable of puzzling out how to open it. The nice thing about having good players in an rpg is that they're willing to engage with the material to see what happens. Since I have stellar players, they heard "prize" and were off and running, leaving a "Homer cloud" in their wake. In effect, they railroaded themselves right into the thick of the adventure, grabbing every single plot hook offered and biting down on them like they were the last hamburgers on Earth. It's nice when my job is easy.

They were puzzled by the lack of guards at the gates, thinking maybe something ill had befallen the town, and immediately scanned for signs of violence. Fortunately, the town appeared to be fine. Once the gate was passed they saw people wandering about Pelagia like one might find in any town in the Forbidden Lands. They passed the hostel on the left, considering staying at the cheap lodgings, but they decided that it might be more interesting and/or profitable to stay at the inn and do some schmoozing. And schmooze they did. If by schmooze, you mean Kelter catching the eye of a noble dwarven lady, which faded to black in short order, and Kelter was not to be seen for the rest of the evening. Note: In the original adventure this NPC was staunchly against inter-kindred romance and would likely have rebuffed Kelter with her dagger, the scene was so well-played by all involved it just made sense and flowed from the narrative perfectly. And Kelter's quite the charmer regardless, like any rakish halfling rogue is wont to be.

The next day the characters went after the Gift of the Sea with a laser focus. Pelagia is constructed around its arcane purpose of guiding the four winds, and many of its residents are Druids aligned with that task. They learned at the Inn that the Gift was in one of the four monoliths, in the Chamber of the Winds. and went without much delay. The Gift was sealed in a large stone chest which had a number with small holes on its lid. On a nearby wall were racks containing five simple blunted swords and the same number of blunted knives, as well as clay tablets containing various words in Maha, each attached to a long stick like a pool cue. It is clear that the tile poles are designed to be fitted into the holes in the stone chest, perhaps to spell out a password or something. Deciding to go straight to the source, the party approached Kritre the Caller, High Singer of the Druids atop his mountain station. Kritre is not exactly lucid, and spends his days sketching symbols on the cliff face using the famed knife Scarnesclaw. When the characters attempted to talk with him, they were not able to get much more out of him except: “The answer you seek is: the sword kills a white cat”.  Being experienced gamers, the players know a puzzle when they see it, and set about finding out how to translate the tablets with a ruthless efficiency. They learned about the Maha script and quickly figured out how to transliterate Kritre's statement in Maha, and ran back to the Chamber of Winds and applied their knowledge, placing the Maha runes in the correct order, revealing not the Gif of the Sea but rather twelve stone circles painted in four colours (blue, red, green, yellow), with three circles in each colour. In each circle, there was a slit in which a knife or a sword can be inserted. Next to the circles, the following Maha signs are engraved: “Three Knives Wound.” This delayed the characters a total of  0.68 seconds (an eternity for an android) who promptly put the knives in the red, revealing the next step (still no Gift! Stupid, stupid chest), which is five slots for Maha sign tablets, with an engraved next to saying: “Huge sun chases little new moon.” Being excessively cunning linguists, the party finds the appropriate Maha tablets, revealing the Gift of the Sea, the Dwarven warhammer Scarnesbane! It is a heavy warhammer, with the sign of the god Huge carved into its iron head six-fold. The haft is the colour of bone, and is said to have been cut from a tooth of the ancient dragon mother, Scarne. 

An Offer of Kinship

The heroes quickly absconded with the Gift, heading back to the Inn. There they encountered Kelter's paramour from the night before, who revealed herself as no less than Arvia, the princess of the Crombe Dwarves, a famous and feared warrior. Her former friendliness towards to the party changed to earnestness when they revealed they had the famous hammer. Understandably, she requested that the party give her the hammer which she felt was her birthright, but was far to noble to take it by force. She swore to them that if they indeed gave her Scarnesbane, she would swear "friendship in blood and stone" to them. Like and group of PCs worth their salt, they said they'd get back to her on that, but partied with the Dwarves nonetheless. Unsurprisingly, Kelter would be spending the night alone. 

Merigall Appears

The next morning, an androgynous bard shows up in Pelagia named Merigall. The bard has yellow eyes, and is exquisitely beautiful. Legends about this person are all around the Forbidden Lands. No one knows who or what the creature is, or even if it’s a man, woman or otherwise. Those who have had intimate relations with Merigall can offer no insight in that regard either. Some believe the creature to be a demon, others that they're a god. The bard is said to be as likely to help those they encounter as it is to destroy them. Merigall makes an introduction to the heroes, and seems  to know a lot about the them and their exploits. Surely that can't portend anything remotely dangerous. Like any mysterious figure that approaches a band of heroes, Merigall has a proposition for them. The bard wants the heroes to find a crown out of legend called Stanengist, which means "The Hanging Stones". It is purported to have three rubies in it, two red and one green. Merigall offers "wealth beyond imagining" in return for the crown, and states that the heroes may find the bard at Amber’s Peak.