Hepisod Date IRL 11/17/2024

Dates Spanned On Ilia Khah: M04W3D1-4, Year Restriction 446

Events Summary

The party investigates a series of blanket thefts in Mountport. Their first day gets them a profile but not much beyond that. Their second day ends up in an early start, but indeed the early birds would get their worm, following Tina's lead to the Archmun manor and eventually uncovering the culprit, Faer Gun Kot, an air genasi protesting new trade taxes by staging a dramatic and dimwitted solo terrorist demonstration. After apprehending him and earning praise from the mayor, the party is assigned an ecological survey to support city planning but quickly becomes sidetracked by all manner of other plans, schemes, and wants. This includes their desire to take a trip up to Solara, where Fisk seems to think the crystal he took from the cave dungeon was pointing him. They end up asking Tina for early use of the Ruthless. As coincidence would have it, she also wanted to take Ruthless to Solara for some repairs, maintenance, and general overhaul and updating. Due to a problem with the ship's wheel, the party is delayed some, using this time to make great progress on their ecology job and taking the time to tour the ship, take inventory, and claim bed spaces. Meanwhile, Louis Baptiste delves into religious research at the temple library, uncovering potential clues about the enigmatic Blue Lathanderian symbol from their earlier dungeon exploration. These threads intertwine as the group balances preparation for future adventures and their ongoing investigations.

The Hepisod Anatomy, in Detail, by 'Stage'

Stage No. 1 ~ Blanket Statement

• Party begins their day meeting up outside Tina's office to plan. Firnas informs the party that Louis wanted to get a head start researching the Blue Lathanderian symbol found in the room Firnas opened in the cave dungeon. He will be busy at the temple, soliciting the help of Barin of Whayleave to scour their library.
• The rest of the party looks over the map Tina gave. Eleven households plus Guira Cannamon makes twelve. They decide to split the party. Hanea, Vaelin, and Violetta will start with Guira's neighbors before trying the five northernmost houses on the map of reported blanket thefts. Fisk, Firnas, and Kelzyr will take the remaining six.
• Guira's district was not very helpful. Her neighbor across the street, another neighbor sweeping his porch, and Jeremy all seemed to vaguely know what happened to Guira, but with no useful details to provide. At least Jeremy gave Hanea free food.
• They collect the stories from the other eleven homes, and meet up at the Spud Hut in the middle of the afternoon to gather their profile. It seems near certain the suspect is a male air genasi, targeting homes that are easy enough to steal from safely and conveniently rather than some other pattern to follow. Though they float disguising Vix or Kelzyr as a baby, the party decides to pursue any records Tina's office might have on such residents of the city.
• Tina leaves to grab them the records, and the nosy ninnyhammers among us took a peek at her desk. A personal letter and a business letter, Copperpacker's event taxes, a first draft of a statement on Turtle being caught, and a copy of a V.R. book on the history of the Ruthless. They disturb nothing. Tina returns with the records, enough to identify three male air genasi suspects.
• Tactfully, the party visits and surrounds each suspect house. One, Senti, is out of town, a neighbor reports he's been gone since before the blanket thefts began. The next, Nethek Alima, was clearly hearing about this string of crimes for the very first time. The last suspect, the ex city guard Dar Faer Dunaus, also seems to be dry of useful information. It is late, and the party goes to bed.
• A half hour or so before sunrise, Kelzyr wakes to a knock at the door. Tina Johnson delivers him a message, apparently left at the door of every blanket theft victim. It reads, "It is I, the one antagonizing your homes and land. Come and find a demonstration in the abandoned Archmun manor today at noon. Your precious blankets shall play their part in a display of righteousness sure to dazzle all!"

Stage No. 2 ~ Faer Gun Caught

• Kelzyr mobilizes the party then and there, accepting Tina's invite to hold the guards so they may be the ones to bust into Archmun's old manor and claim their prize for bringing the blanket bandit to justice. It will help them get the ship, after all.
• Party makes it to Archmun manor, and greets the guards outside. They seem to understand the party are the ones Tina put in charge, explain they have a perimeter, and await further instructions. Fisk orders them to shoot and/or apprehend anyone (not the party) entering or exiting the premises. Absolutely no one in or out.
• With that, the party heads past the "Archmun Manor. Foreclosed. ABSOLUTELY NO ENTRY" signs and through a door inside. Detect magic reveals nothing of note. They prep the main entrance and have Kelzyr climb a tree to secure and breach the balcony door just above it. Immediately, they see an air genasi holding a baby blanket over a bonfire on the stairs, and Fisk casts a restraint spell. Once again I, the DM, have been hit by, I've been struck by, the hold person spell.
• Though the genasi quickly breaks the spell, the party is quicker. Firnas moves to restrain him with rope, while Vaelin listens closely to his ranting and raving.
• The thief, Faer Gun Kot, gladly introduces himself as a political rival to all. He is apparently concerned with some new tax codes on the books affecting trade between Ebonreach and his home of Verdantia. In his view, they are unfair, and will cause the economic security blanket his ancestors and comrades have built over generations to be stolen away via their exports to Mountport. To fix this, he decided to steal blankets and make a statement of his own. To catch the attention of Tina Johnson and impress her, so she'd put in a good word and arrange for him to meet key senators he'd need to convince to reverse the proposed tax changes.
• The party explains he's going to prison, and Fisk marches him outside to give his highly incriminating spiel to the guards. Fisk also tries and fails to get the guard to shoot Mister Gun Kot. He is then gagged for the hike back to Tina's office.

Stage No. 3 ~ Change of Pace

• Party arrives before the mayor and slaps the blanket thief on her desk, proud of their investigative work and how cleanly they apprehended this highly unstable man. Tina has him taken for processing, congratulates the party on another job well done, despite the second annoying case in a row, and records their 215 gp payment (1250 gp left on the down payment).
• Tina is fresh out of criminal cases too hot, bizarre, or otherwise with weird restrictions capping the guards from just doing their job and handling it. Instead, she is happy to offer the party a different sort of job. It's not catching terrorists, but the city will pay them money toward their purchase of the Ruthless.
• The job is to conduct an ecological survey of the trees and shrubs in and around Mountport, so their city planners can better support the health and beauty of the nature there. This survey was supposed to be started a while ago, but it slipped Tina's mind. None of the usual qualified suspects can get it done, and she already booked a team of ecologists from Graycut to stop by and review the city's methods and findings after their own conference at Avaloch.
• Tina's desperation means the offered pay is good. She suggests 10 gp per person per day, upon completion of a survey that must have its conclusions on her desk within ten days, by the end of M04W3D12 so she can spend the thirteenth day familiarizing herself and greet the ecologists when they arrive the morning of M04W4D01. The party agrees, as Haneastacia claims to have some experience, and they hope it will be easy money.
• Outside Tina's office, however, they get into a bit of a weird argument. While this is happening, Haneastacia lags back to arrange a dinner date at Big Salad Place that evening, though quickly scurries back to the discussion upon hearing the words "forest fire" out of Fisk's ever-conniving mouth.
• Apparently, Fisk and Vaelin think this job is stupid. This is the crux of a larger argument during which, among other things, Fisk repeatedly insults Kelzyr's ability to count to or past thirty.
• It is clear the party, save for perhaps Haneastacia, is happy to wait until the last minute to hand in their results and maximize their pay. Firnas is an especially loud advocate for this approach, and Violetta also seems sufficiently enthusiastic, claiming it will give her time to do her own bits of research on strange things seen and taken from their time in the cave dungeon Fisk had them explore.
• As they reminisce about how strange that place was, its magic almost incomprehensible, Fisk lets slip that something about the crystal he took seemed to plant ideas about visiting Solara in his head. Haneastacia and Kelzyr, the two members of the party most enthusiastic about the ecology job, offer to do it all while everyone else makes progress on other things.
• They consider their time table if they make the Solara trip. An estimate from Haneastacia doesn't give them much wiggle room to get their conclusions in on time, unless everyone is all hands on deck. They realize the Ruthless would be much faster than purchasing their trip there and back, and VSL likes the idea of trying out their future vessel.
• Fisk and Haneastacia go back into the office. Fisk, having convinced Hanea it's okay not to be entirely truthful about their intentions to take the ship all the way to Solara, leads the conversation.
• Tina seems reluctant she can actually be of help. If they want the ship to help with their survey, as they rather colorfully claimed, they'll have to wait until she's back from Solara. Apparently, she had plans to depart the next morning, since the blanket thief was caught, to go to a wayfinder there she knows called Tugg. They used to work together in the past, and she believes nobody can fix a ship up as efficiently and magnificently as he can.
• Hanea suggests that the party might as well get acquainted with the ship and could accompany her to Solara. Realizing there is somewhat of an opportunity still present, Tina accepts the party over whoever she was hoping to borrow from a passing Ebonreacher cargo ship. This way, the party still gets paid the same rate for days they can't be paid doing survey work, and they can spend that time to familiarize themselves with Ruthless, set to be their ship someday.
• Agreeing to meet the next morning and get acquainted with the ship shortly before departure, the party spends the rest of the day doing their ecological survey, with all hands not occupied researching Lathanderian offshoots very much on deck. They manage to gather their counts and data for one third of the city extent this way before dinnertime, when Haneastacia dismisses them to make it to dinner with Tina on time. They talked about Ruthless and their plans for morning, perhaps more than they should, but at some point the conversation got more personal and Tina opened up about her hobbies, including astronomy, archery, and wine tasting.
• The next day, the party wakes and meets up. Louis thinks he is getting somewhere interesting with his research, and so elects not to take the trip, to follow one last big lead at the temple library. Notably, Violetta and Mayor Johnson are not at the dock at the agreed upon time.
• Waiting a few minutes, though, Tina shows up. The party expresses concern that Violetta might be missing. Tina basicaly laughs their concern off, "She's not on the ship?" and the party admits they hadn't checked. Tina will explain that Violetta showed up at her door close to two hours past midnight, too excited to sleep, requesting permission to get started checking out and redecorating the ship a bit early. It seems Tina was not one to disappoint the fascinated feline, as she quickly surfaced from below deck to greet the party as they boarded.
• Excited to show off everything she saw and did over the last five and a half hours, Violetta gave the party a tour of the ship, giving them a chance to claim bed spaces and map out what modifications they would like to request be made. Highlights included a drawing Violetta put up in the loft of the room she claimed for herself, a big ass triplet apochromat telescope, a mushroom garden, and a very secure vault for treasure.
• The vault takes three keys to get in, in colored leather pouches she purchased of vermillion red, sage green, and lavender purple, in that order. She tells everyone to remember this by her initials, keeps the sage key, gives the lavender key to Haneastacia, and runs into town to get a secure way for Vix to keep the vermillion pouch.
• While Violetta is out, Tina notices another problem with the ship, concerning its wheel. One of the fittings for the tiller ropes is horribly rotted, and this vessel is not safe to take to open sea in this condition. She invites Haneastacia to help her work on it, and together they are able to spot and remedy another problem with the whipstaff's alignment. Still, they agree that the housing for the rotted fitting is not fixable. The parts themselves are Verdantial in origin, meaning they will have to wait on a foreign part to replace it with before setting sail for Solara. The day's voyage is canceled, though Tina imagines she can have a part ready late that evening for a departure the next morning.
• This means their trip has been delayed, but perhaps this means they will have Louis Baptiste to join them for their first ocean voyage as a crew. To salvage the day, they all commit to another afternoon of intense ecological surveying, covering another third of the city. At most, realistically, they are sitting on one day of everyone working to finish the part that takes going outside and counting. Things are looking very good for the party.

And now the appendices????

Stage 'No.' 'A' ~ Blue-Sky Research

• Louis Baptiste wakes up on M04W3D02 to a bitter feeling that the very obviously religious symbology from the cave dungeon was so foreign and puzzling to him. He, of all people, should have what it takes to answer these questions, but it is clear he has some major gaps in his understanding of the tree of faiths, practices, and depictions.
• Firnas greets him in the temple, and invites him on the walk to join up with the rest of the party. Louis politely declines, convinced of the party's ability to catch a weirdo crook and unable to take his mind off the glaring gaps. Firnas promises to tell the rest of the party, as well as keep him informed of their progress.
• Louis runs into Barin of Whayleave, who asks him why he's still there. When he explains, Barin will offer to help comb the library for anything of note, apparently also a stranger to the Blue Lathander imagery.
• In the library at the top of the temple, it appears that Initiate Salvatore is helping a commoner to peruse some books on agricultural methods. Aside from that, Louis and Barin have the library to themselves.
• The library is very big. There is a lot to go through, and frequent breaks are required to break up the monotony of reading titles and blurbs-on-the-back and maintain the ability to actually derive and assess meaning from those looks into each candidate book. Their first day of searching started them looking for astronomy and constellations connections, trying to relate anything they found or saw to the Kostarran constellation Firnas tried and failed with or the Ebonreacher constellation that Haneastacia and Louis himself seemed to have joint luck inputting. This turned out to be a dead end, at least within the confines of Eldath's library at the dockside temple.
• Louis woke to find that Firnas had already left, a bit odd. Unwilling to be discouraged just yet, he resolved to make this day his day to try finding something pertaining to the "Sister in the Skies" verbiage seen on the sign in the room with the pressure plate puzzle.
• Louis himself finds nothing of note, but when he sits for dinner with Barin of Whayleave and Cousin Mitch Csatlos, Mitch will point their attention to a book he found. It is a somewhat old book speculating on the origins of modern currency, with a focus on mainland Crystalis. Happenstance, he opened the book in the middle to a page which had verbatim a reference to a "Sister in the Skies" in a footnote. However, the context was wildly out of place. They ate, drank, and though two days of work hadn't gotten them very far, Eldath's faithful are never afraid to face a daunting task of perusing and research.
• When Louis and Firnas have breakfast at the temple together the next day, Firnas mentions they're supposed to be taking Ruthless to Solara for a few days. He reminds Louis that he is of course welcome, but Louis says despite a couple days of nothing, he feels inspired. Eldath's library will show him something that day. He just has to keep focused on the issue bugging him most. While many mysteries surround the symbol itself and are more specific or inexplicable at face value, the Blue Lathander sunrise was the image that taunted him. He would have to focus his research intentions there.
• Mitch and Barin ended up with other business that day. For the first part of the day, Louis enlisted Initiate Salvatore. While they went through their respective finds over lunch, they agreed they hadn't found much. Feoria called Salvatore away that afternoon, and Louis was on his own.
• Late in the afternoon, as he felt himself becoming hungry once more, he happened upon an unlikely candidate. A book by V.R. hidden among other oddities of exaggerated and hyperinflated world lore, called "Symbols of the Deep: Bygone Profundity our Archaeology Ignores" stuck out to him. It likely wasn't a perfect source for his search, but it was what came to him on a day when he spent the most time alone, almost meditating combing the shelves, his intentions focused on the Blue Lathander target.
• He decided that skimming its pages over dinner wouldn't be of any harm. A lot of it he found to be somewhat rubbish, but it did have an excerpt that stuck out to him, one he asked Salvatore to transcribe for him to carry and share with the rest of the party properly. Salvatore was very thorough, including details such as the author, the author's notes, publisher, and publication date, and wrote in an impeccably clean hand. The document presented to Louis by the end of the evening was a work of art worth treasuring for the information it would hopefully help unlock.
• That evening, Louis told Firnas he had found what he hopes is a lead worth confirming their suspicions they aren't alone in this mystery. While he was still pondering the implications, he seemed to want to leave it at that. The next day, he meant to go with Firnas and greet the party proper all at once and make the announcement, so they could all discuss the ramifications and any future steps they might want to take together.