Catching Up With the TIP...

The TIP have been in Shoreline Manor for about a week, fixing it up and making it somewhat habitable. The manor is fairly safe and members of the TIP are beginning to find their places within the house. Iskandar’s ashes have been swept up into a coffee can, as all the urns around the manor are somewhat questionable. Ildan has claimed the master bedroom and is still having somewhat haunted dreams. Vani has found a small nook to nest in, which is near the fresh water just outside the manor. The pond is remarkably clean. Narcel’Uss has chosen a room next to the master bedroom, as Ildan wants to keep an eye on her. J has made herself comfortable in the nearby barn, hanging out with the animals. Dorian has found a guest bedroom. The library is… messed up, though Bird Girl is taking a shining to it. The books have been open to the elements for a long time. The sorceress was not into cleaning. The place has been in disrepair for a long time.

Jeremiah is also not into cleaning. As Dorian asks him what he can do, he responds that he is “an excellent toady”. His skill set is varied and disturbing, perhaps even involving surgeries done on him in the past. (Don’t think too much about it). Dorian tries to get the conversation back on track and calls a meeting. “I feel like we need some… windows. My rooms are quite drafty”. Vani says, “Well, that’s why we go underwater”. Considering most of the TIP can’t do that, they think they can use some of their cash to buy windows. Vani wants stained glass but Dorian thinks they should opt for the cheapest option first. Maybe she can pay the difference later. The TIP face much of the confusion that homeowners often face… how much do windows even cost? They currently have 69g, but that doesn’t seem to be enough to fix ALL the windows. Ildan chips in that they also need food… and booze. Vani says, “We need a new job! We need money!”. Dorian has been around Malkara, he might be able to hook them up with some work or contacts.

“Don’t make me regret saying this, but Vani, we could use your curiosity for-”, Dorian is cut off by some people walking into the great hall. A robust gentleman introduces himself as “Gregory Bagville-Sackins” and his wife “Angela”. “Don’t tell me you have a deed too”, says Dorian. No. They are the neighbours. They want to welcome the TIP to the neighbourhood. “Where do you live exactly…?”, asks Narcel’Uss. They live on the edge of the property, to the west, and want to have everyone over for dinner (though the wife doesn’t seem as enthusiastic as her husband to have guests). He might also refer someone who can fix their windows. They finally leave. Vani trails along after them. Dorian notices her leave but it’s too late, she’s already gone. Everyone splits up. Dorian and J go into town, Vani goes after the neighbours and Ildan and Narcel’Uss stay at the manor.

Team Drunk and Cranky (Ildan and Narcel’Uss)

There is someone still wandering about the grounds. A grown human, late teens or early twenties with reddish hair. He does not seem related to the Bagville-Sackins. Narcel’Uss beckons Ildan over. “Come over to the window”, she commands. “We have windows?”. She rolls her eyes, “Come to the space where there should be a window”. “What is that. How many neighbours do we have? We need to set a precedent that they can’t just wander onto our property”. Ildan heads out to question the young man, finding him out at the graveyard. He seems to not be navigating by sight. “I used to live here”, he explains. “What are you doing here?”, he wonders. Ildan isn’t really sure himself, it has been one crazy ride. However, the man seems to not want trouble and begins wandering towards the gate. The young man explains that his mother used to work here. Ildan gets a little worried… and tries to usher him out faster. The young man stops at the gate and says, “I always get confused at this part. Which way on the road is West?”. Ildan points it out and the man wanders off. Narcel’Uss peers out from the window, trying to catch the action. She is startled by a familiar voice. There is another Grue/Drow in the room with her! He is Sethyl’dras. He grew up with Narcel’Uss and he is an elf of loyalty and ambition. He is part of the guard of nobility, loyal to the priestess, sworn in a few days before Narcel’Uss’ exile. He might have once been betrothed to her. He speaks of how he and a team of guards converging on this area, they are finally getting close to tracking down her mother’s murderer, who was the high priestess. Narcel’Uss seems to be trying to remain outwardly calm and asks questions about how close they are, and if many still believe her to be the killer. He calms her and says that the Captain wants her to be the one to wield the blade and strike down the killer when they find him. They finish and Sethyl’dras disappears into the dark. Ildan comes back. Ildan and Narcel’Uss confer and decide not to worry anyone about the young man yet. They will keep it to themselves for the time being. Narcel’Uss says, “Nevermind him, we have important matters to discuss…”.

Team Velociraptor (J and Dorian)

J and Dorian make their way into town using the cart and donkey, Theodore. Dorian makes himself known in the circles of nobility again, it has been a long time. Reginald, “Reggie” or “Reg” is his contact, known as a seller of fineries that he buys and resells for more. Reg runs a pawn shop in the middle of town, he is a suck-up for aristocrats and a hard-ass for the lesser clientele. They meet him at the shop. It reminds J of her father’s shop. He is in the middle of trying to talk up the value of a geode to a client who isn’t having any of it. The man ends up going… for a jack-in-the-box. “It’s a gift for my brother-in-law”. He breaks the arm so that it keeps spinning and never pops open. “It’s perfect now”. It seems he is a once-famous bard… Arven Rosethorn! J whispers to Dorian, “Do you know who that is”. Dorian doesn’t see an angle, so he doesn’t care too much. “Dooorian… what do you want?”, asks Reg. “Know anyone who needs a party of murder-hobos?”, wonders Dorian. Reg offers a job. There is a baroness who needs something for her… “wizard rave”. She wants some golem pieces, found in Gurzigost Tower. The pieces would be assembled (but not reassembled to a state of living) to decorate for the rave. Satisfied, they leave, as the donkey seems to be making a lot of noise outside. Hee-haw, hee-haw, hee-haw...

Team Blinky Blink (Vani)

The young man is outside the house, with the neighbours. He is taking too long to get to the cart. The Bagville-Sackins leave him behind and he wanders off towards the graveyard, to be dealt with Ildan later. Vani jumps onto the cart and gets bounced off just as she gets to their property. She sneaks up and notices some thieves cant. It used to be “easy mark” but that has been crossed off and is firmly marked with “stay away” now. Vani sneaks up to the window to listen. The B-Ss are talking about how the new neighbours are much better than the last sorceress and her crazy monsters... they might even bring up the property value in the neighbourhood. The house is decorated very cheaply, with gaudy decorations. They have a servant, who is a little halfling woman. She is very old and very quiet, with a distinctive scar that runs the entire length of her left arm. It is a claw mark of the sahuagin. They are a fish people who eat halflings and are the “boogeymen” of the aquatic-halfling world. Vani decides to head back, deciding that these people mean the TIP no harm. She encounters the blind man on the way back. His name is John. He a servant of the B-Ss, who is a bit of a handyman. Vani begins digging into him for information. He seems reluctant to explain but tells a bit of the past owners of Shoreline Manor. There used to be an elven family who lived there. They made some… bad choices. John does not want to say much more than that, though it seems he may have been involved too. Vani gives him some flowers for his trouble and begins collecting more on the way back.

At the Manor…

Everyone converges and relays what they learned, to varying degrees. As Dorian talks about the job, Narcel’Uss interjects, “Is it far away?”. Vani explains she might have gotten some carpenters, when she talked to John. She also thinks the TIP should be the ones to bring the food to the neighbour's dinner, which everyone thinks… “what food?”. The TIP are house poor. Vani explains that we have a cursed window space, on the North Wall, that rejects any window puts into it. Dorian wants to know how this John fellow knows so much about the house. Vani explains that John was a servant for the elven family who used to live in the manor. The TIP decides to put off the dinner so that they may instead pursue the job. Vani goes back to the B-Ss house and explains the situation. She catches John on the way back, who says something like, “Don’t listen to the box” very seriously. Back at the manor, Vani sneaks around looking for a box. She encounters Narcel’Uss looking out the window and scares the crap out of her. “Look at this cloak!”. “I’ll show you where to put it”. Everyone eventually goes to bed.

The Morning…

Vani instructs Jeremiah that there may be some carpenters coming by soon. Dorian writes up an IOU to leave with Jeremiah, since the TIP has no money to pay currently. J adds, “and for godsake, feed the donkey”. The team is ready for the next adventure.

The Journey…

The team heads North-West. J has knowledge of how to navigate this area. She knows the tower they are looking for. She avoided that particular tower in her childhood, as the tower was used by slavers as a meet-up point. The journey will go past J’s home, so the group heads to Pangol Inn, with the intention of picking up some animal mounts. This is the first time seeing the Inn, for most of the party. The Inn is a mishmash of businesses... a teashop, a massage parlour and a “junk” shop filled with once-magical items. The Inn is warm to travelers and especially warm to family. There are a lot of Pangols. The ceiling is just at head height. Papa Pangol welcomes everyone… to Dorian, “You didn’t impregnate her did you?”. Jean’s father was an adventurer who collected all sorts of things and brought them here when he retired. He is a bard, a teller of epics. His speech is peppered with stories and random quotes that no one is old enough to get. Dorian and Papa Pangol hit it off. The team starts looking over the ponies in the stables and eyeing up which ones seem most suitable. Each member picks a pony, except J who chooses a mastiff, because she can. They ride out!

The TIP are on track, heading to the Tower that Papa Pangol told J never, ever to go to. It actually used to be a tower. It is crumbling now, there are many campfire spot out around it. There is a garbage pit nearby that has been reclaimed by nature. It seems people don’t camp here anymore. There are some steps leading downwards, underground the citadel. Dorian gives a speech about being prepared… we’ve been in this situation before. Are the golems truly disassembled as they have been told? They will proceed with caution. The area is investigated further. There actually may be people camping here. They see busted chain lengths that may have once held slaves. Ren starts digging around some of the old campfires, not very invested in this job. She kicks an object. It turns out to be a giant iron key. Ren picks up the key and looks at it. It seems familiar to her. A key like this was once hanging around the neck of a warrior she once knew, named Krol. It was a prized possession, one he would have defended with his life. Ren begins to sweat and says, “We shouldn’t be here” to Dorian. She is reluctant to say why. “There is evil here. Very, very bad things are happening. I don’t want to be here”. She is disturbed by the slaver element and seems to think they may still be nearby. Dorian picks up the key. J seems to know something about the man who wore this key or at least one similar. Some of the group is panicky that something could be out here, killing people. They decide to head inside, couldn’t be any worse.

Inside...

Ildan now hangs onto the key. Dorian goes first but notices no one is really following. Angrily, he confronts the group who now follows a bit closer, with Ren at the back. The door is shattered, it looks like it was once sieged. There is a gigantic hand on the floor. It looks to be made of metal. How will they possibly carry all of this? Possibly bear-form J may be strong enough. The team splits up, with J, Ren and Dorian taking out the hand while the rest keep looking. The interior is fairly large, it looks like it as been looted a lot over the centuries. It has clearly been the site of an old battle. In the main antechamber, they find the body. It is mostly whole. It is missing the head and a foot. It’s chest is slashed open. Something… cut through the steel like butter. Perhaps a sword slash. It seems to be eight feet tall. It might have been defending this place, blasted from the front room to where it now lays.

Ildan, Ren and J look for supplies and rig everything up with rope. Vani and Narcel’Uss find the head. It looks like a helmet. It could be an iron golem, which has deadly breath and should be impervious to magic. Narcel’Uss sees an egg-shaped cage behind the helmet that looks like… a magical mine. Damn. Everyone hears the explosion. Vani was looking at an immense blade that seems impossibly large. She also sees a small box with a crack in it. She can hear the wind in the crack when she touches it and she can hear the sea. The box is small and made of wood, it appears to have no hinges and seems to be made of one whole piece. She pockets it and then the explosion goes off. Narcel’Uss flies 20 feet back and hits a wall. “Everyone… look out for mines… I need to sit down”, she says. She is sitting down. Ren picks up the deactivated mine. It looks a lot like the other ones the TIP collected before. She rages and crushes it in between her hands. Vani doesn’t care about anyone, she continues to stare at the box. It looks like it could fit into the neck of the golem. She slowly brings the box to her ear. Vani hears the voice of creation “the bear is born under the red star, the traitor’s sign”. J is staring right at Vani. Vani takes the box to J and asks her to smash it, she obliges. J feels something escape. The voice whispers to everyone the same message as before. It is in the wind now. Ren feels that this term has been used to describe her and others before. It is a pirate term that refers to people who would betray their ship and crew. Dorian recognizes that his dad had one of these boxes but that he never talked about it. Ren tries to explain the problem to everyone, that the words speak of a traitor. They want to leave, but there is still the foot left. Both Ren and Narcel’Uss refuse to go back in. Dorian is fuming and drags Vani back in. They find the foot, which seems to be mine free. J helps to drag it out. J and Ildan go back for the sword. The cart is now bulging with 800 pounds of metal.

At the Pangol Inn, on the way back, Dorian tries to tell Vani to bring things to the group’s attention before deciding to do something rash, like smashing things. J is off frantically writing a message to her brother, somewhere within the inn. Ren goes out to look at the constellations, looking for the red star. It is glowing red, it does not always. Narcel’Uss steps in and talks to Ren about it. The Drow map the stars in their own way. She knows the red star is entangled with gnomes and betrayal. Everyone converges, wary and nervous. Narcel'Uss looks at the group and says, "It is a time for revelation. Those who have secret agendas must confess or face divine judgement"...

(NOTE: I decided that Narcel'Uss should not specifically accuse Vani yet, in order for the conversation to be more open-ended next time we begin).