#the satyr is a highly paranoid fey

[essektheylyss]

me: Alright, I've got one more question. What happened to this [NPC who was just invented]?

@dieselpunkd: Do not try to talk to this NPC a player just made up. Don't do this to me.

me: I'M GOING TO THE LIBRARY TO LEARN SENDING TO CALL HER RIGHT NOW, DON'T THINK I'M NOT.

[firelight-tales-of-exandria]

Firelight Tales of Exandria, Ch.6 - “The Cure is Murder”

Thank you all for coming, and let us tell some stories...

“The party had taken on the job of investigating the farms on the outskirts of the Bramblewood. Investigating a few, they found telltale signs of ruined land, half-eaten livestock, and territorial farmers. They did manage to find, atone farm, a group of starving wolves, that were scavenging a newly-sacked farm and, unfortunately in their hunger, they deemed it a big enough risk and attempted to include the party in the cycle of life. Our heroes took umbrage to that, and either killed or drove off the wolf pack, after which they investigated this farm and discovered, with the aid of the gnoll hunter, Buddy, that the perpetrators of these attacks were a pair of ankhegs that had come from the Bramblewood itself.

“After dispatching them, with the unforeseen help of Zeal, the party examined the ankhegs and Buddy, through some ominous allusions, informed the party that something within the Bramblewood, appearing to emanate from Gatshadow, has been corrupting and sickening the wildlife and the forest itself. Retrieving a trophy from one of the ankhegs, the group made their way back to Westruun.”

Song directs the party back to the Freeman’s Lodge, so they can drop off the ankheg head.

Being nighttime, the Lodge is mostly empty, but there is a clerk doing busywork at the reception desk. The group drops off the head to complete their bounty, and the subsequent paperwork proceeds to bore Ladryssa and Shadow, who busy themselves with the curiosities about the Lodge.

Worried the various stuffed trophies strewn about the Lodge would upset Leaf, especially after the sad business with the wolves, Cezika offers to wait with them outside.

Song makes some allusions to the head having some kind of disease, making the clerk uncomfortable. Finally he finishes his paperwork and imparts the group’s payment and receipt.

Song asks Cezika to be the party’s accountant, which the rogue obviously thinks is a fantastic idea, proceeding to divvy up the bounty among the party.

Zeal apologizes for the circumstances of their meeting earlier. Song invites her to join them for a brew as thanks for saving his life, but the tiefling regrettably excuses herself. Song kisses her hand, “like a gentleman”, thanking her again. Zeal gives him a wink.

Returning to the “Sloppy Satyr” inn & tavern, the group forgoes paying for their own communal room in favor of sharing a bed in one of the single rooms. Song orders some nighttime refreshments and Nakiya brings some pillows and blankets from her room to make the shared room cozy.

Cezika and Song have a quick tête-à-tête about her native language (Marquesian). 

Ladryssa elaborates on her concerns from the farm.  She explains that she comes from the Feywild and the enemies of her patron/adoptive mother created a magical wasting disease that renders its victims paranoid, belligerent, and highly vulnerable to suggestion.

Song: “Y’know, please take this as a compliment, but so many things about you make so much more sense now that I know where you are from.”

Ladryssa: “Thank you?”

Cezika: “Yes, it was a compliment, it is okay.” *head pat*

Ladryssa’s memories are vague on the details of the pandemic, but she remembers that those who were infected were simply executed to prevent its further spread. That's probably not the best solution in this case.

Song asks if Ladryssa can contact her patron/mother to get more info on the malady, and she regrettably says that’s not how her connection works.

Now that Ladryssa is putting the pieces of how the Feywild works versus how the Material Plane (”The Realm of Consequence”) works, she is beginning to understand why her upbringing was so delicate (the lifestyle of the Fey would largely have been lethal for young Ladryssa, and her “mother” would have been pissed if she was hurt).

The group decides that talking to the clergy about cleansing the disease would be the best first step.

Cezika braids Ladryssa’s hair while Shadow watches, enraptured.

Song: “Well would you look at that, Ladryssa: you’ve got two mothers now.”

Ladryssa: “I have three!”

Cezika: “I used to do this for my cousins. It helps with stressful days before bed.”

Song: “How many cousins have you got?”

Cezika: “........I’ve lost count.”

As the group mellows out before sleep, Song plays the lullaby he does from time to time. Nakiya returns from her room with a flute and joins in the tune.

Song wakes in the middle of the night, disturbed by something, holding his heirloom amulet, but falls back asleep

++PARTY LEVEL UP – LVL. 3++

Leaf and Shadow spend another night outdoors and wake with the dawn, while the rest of the group have a slumber party in the room together.

The door to the room having been left unlocked, Shadow slinks into the room. When Cezika wakes up she gets a face full of Shadow.

With the rest of the party being startled awake by Shadow, they are further confused as Song begins speaking in tongues. Cezika recognizes one such language as Primordial. Song, unable to control which language comes out, can’t explain either, but soon gets the hang of it.

Shadow is curious as to why Song keeps fiddling with his pendant. Song explains it was a keepsake from his mother.

Shadow: “You keep grasping it. Can you sense it too?”

Song: “Sense what? Did you have any dreams last night? Not saying I did...”

Shadow is concerned about Song’s well-being, since those from his tribe who started speaking in tongues “lost their sense of themselves”.

To lighten the mood, Song asks the party what color his hair should be next. Shadow asks if he can make it look like theirs. Half an hour later, Song comes out with his hair in the same streaked salt-and-pepper pattern as Shadow’s fur, after which Shadow braids Song’s hair, under Cezika’s instruction.

Cezika and Shadow stop by Nellywicke’s shop to square up their debt for the necklace she gave them. The gnome jokingly says she didn’t think they would even return, let alone actually pay for it. Shadow thanks her again for the necklace, kissing her on the cheek.

Nellywicke: “Sometimes the brightest lights come from the deepest shadows.”

Nellywicke asks what the next step for the party is, and they mention investigating an illness. She remarks that something big is going on at the Temple Ward that morning, so other people may be ill as well, immediately alarming the group, who sprint off.

The Temple square is full of people, with each of the large temples crammed full with injured lumberjacks. Heading off to the Temple of the Platinum Dragon, the group finds Dren, Zeal, and the other Scales frantically performing first aid and surgery on pews full of injured. Leaf offers their aid, and Dren enlists them in an emergency surgery while the others wait outside.

Song spots a small mob, whipped up into a frenzy heading off to the Freeman’s Lodge. Song, Nakiya, Ladryssa, and Shadow try to get into the Lodge, with varying success, while Cezika tries to keep a lookout outside.

The leader of the Lumberjack’s Guild is trying to keep some semblance of order, keeping the fervor of the mob down. Various lumberjacks and the families of those wounded and killed, shout out about how the forest came alive to attack them. Others shout out how the Margrave refuses to lend the support of the Westruun Shields to protect excursions into the Bramblewood.

Song, getting crammed into a far corner of the Lodge, recognizes one of the dissenting voices as Gortman, who is calling for political reform of the city leadership and deposing of the Margrave and his military dictatorship. The mob begins working itself up into a frenzy, but Song manages to surreptitiously calm the crowd before they call for blood en masse.

Cezika, outside, melds into the crowd as Margrave Brandon Zimmerset makes his way into the Freeman’s Lodge, flanked by his personal guard. The Margrave immediately quiets the mob, addressing their grievances directly. He explains that attacks on trade caravans across the Dividing Plains threaten the stability and economic lifeblood of Westruun, and are spreading the might of the Shields too thin to help with domestic concerns. He firmly “reassures” the citizens that he always has their best interest at heart and warns that any steps taken toward “political reform” will be met with swift action.

The Margrave, on the spot, declares an open bounty of one thousand gold pieces to whomever eliminates the cause of the recent troubles within the Bramblewood, sending those adventurers present scurrying out of the Freeman’s Lodge.