Campaign Log: Chaotic Pioneering

[coronatiger]

Thoughts on October 21st

I got up early today, too. I usually prefer to sleep a little longer, although I’m no Lady Karita. She seldom rose before lunch, if she could avoid it. But today, I had a mission. I transformed into Fabian and put on male clothes to Olivia’s disgust, but I still got a good-bye kiss before I left. I brought Scorchmark in case of trouble, an empty backpack and a fat purse.

It wasn’t hard reaching the palisade without being seen. Dawn was near, but the sun was still hiding. I ran at the wall, leapt off the ground, and set a foot against the palisade to boost me up to the top. I peeked over, but saw nobody nearby, so I slipped over and headed for the adventurers’ guild. I found an alley nearby and changed back to Mattea.

It was too early in the morning, so the door was locked. I checked my pouch and found my lockpicks and began to make my way inside. One of the rods broke and a piece got stuck in the lock. I considered running away, but noticed that a woman had seen me, so I decided to wait for Gnomus and confess what I’d done.

When the guild master arrived, the first thing I said was that I had broken his door and was sorry. He glanced at the door, and seeing no obvious damage, he tried to insert his key to unlock it, but that didn’t work. I explained that since I shouldn’t be in town, I had wanted to go inside, and had tried to pick the lock. Since the key didn’t work anymore, I tried to remove the stuck piece of metal. It came away surprisingly easily.

We went inside, and Gnomus locked the door behind us so we could speak privately, in case other adventurers were coming. After giving me a lecture about the guildhall protecting large values, Gnomus asked what business I had here today. I told him I had come to buy potions and gave him the list that Olivia had compiled for me. Gnomus went into the back room and fetched my orders. However, he only had two flight potions in stock. He said he’d make a note of it and promised that there’d be more available soon.

I took the opportunity to check out the quest board while I was there. There wasn’t anything particularly tempting, although I noticed one about tracking down the escaped bandits, and one about going out to the burned-down encampment to verify that we really had done what we said we did. I felt a little insulted by that last one. Didn’t they trust us?

I asked Gnomus about the guard routine outside town. Did they check people’s identities when they left as well as when they arrived? Gnomus said they did, so I decided to take the same way out as I had come in. Gnomus asked if I had any trouble with the soldiers. I said no. It wasn’t entirely truthful, but I figured I could avoid them easily enough.

When the first adventurers started to come in, to do business or just hang out with their kin, I excused myself and left. It went against every fiber of my being, but Leopold and Va’lyndra had warned me about drawing attention to myself. I returned to the alley and turned back into Fabian. Then I sauntered through the streets before climbing the palisade again, making sure nobody saw me.

Back at the knowledge guild, I handed out the potions I had bought for everyone and explained about the lack of potions of flight. We agreed that Va’lyndra could take one and I the other.


Thoughts on October 22nd

I can’t say I was getting bored with waiting. I spent my free time these last few days with Olivia, or practicing or performing acrobatics, and it was wonderful. Still, I was relieved when Va’lyndra informed the rest of us around noon that the demonologist had arrived. He had been on the road for a while and Va’lyndra was going to treat him to a better meal for dinner. Since the room I shared with Olivia was the largest of our private rooms, we were eating there, Va’lyndra decided. In that case, we had better tidy up, I declared. Olivia rolled her eyes at me. She keeps our room spotless despite my attempts to make a mess, and knew what I was planning. She was on her feet as quickly as me, though, and squeezed my butt playfully when I didn’t unlock the door fast enough to suit her.

Leopold, Ilzo and Va’lyndra arrived well before the meal, and we made small talk until someone knocked on the door. Outside stood a man in farmer’s garb, but he was well-groomed and had clearly had time to clean up after his travels. His name was Herbert. Va’lyndra gave him our names.

Someone had messed up the order, for when dinner arrived, it was grilled chicken for everyone. It was a luxurious feast, but Va’lyndra glared at her plate sullenly and forked up the vegetables, avoiding the meat. I haven’t seen many elves at the knowledge guild, but surely, they must know about the elven diet?

While professing to be an expert on demons, Herbert admitted that he had never heard of Serals before. He was like everyone else in the world in that regard. He needed to be brought up to speed on what we knew already, and Leopold was more than happy to oblige.

Herbert asked if any of us were medically competent. I immediately pointed at Olivia, but Herbert elaborated that he needed someone to monitor the vital signs of the demon, and that made Olivia hesitate. Leopold asked her to instruct him, though, and Olivia sighed with relief.

Herbert told us he would use our Chaos knife to make Neriel in the mood to answer our questions, but he wanted us to ask the questions ourselves. He recommended we write a list of things we wanted to learn while he prepared. Before we could interrogate the demon, Herbert had to perform a magic ritual making it difficult for any gods to observe what we were doing. If Neriel’s god took notice, they could kill Neriel to stop him from talking. Herbert had to gather up some supplies for that ritual. He asked if he could see the Chaos knife, and Leopold handed it over. Herbert felt uncomfortable holding it, just like Leopold had reported earlier. Unlike Va’lyndra and me, neither of them were beings of Chaos.

We should formulate precise questions without leeway to wiggle out of answering what we actually wanted to know, Herbert said. Demons seldom lied, in his opinion, but it could be tricky to get straight answers out of them. Before he left, Herbert demanded fifteen thousand for assisting us in this endeavor. He seemed surprised when nobody tried to negotiate, and Ilzo just counted out a hundred and fifty gold. We agreed to meet up in a quarter of an hour before going into the woods to find a suitable location for the interrogation.

After we had made our list of questions, Ilzo, Va’lyndra and I stood up to prepare ourselves. Leopold was going to remain here to learn from Olivia, but he was so curious about the obscuring ritual that he convinced Va’lyndra to swap duties with him.

And so, it was Leopold, Ilzo and I who left the compound with Herbert. I wore my swamp wurm leather armor, and had Scorchmark and the cornucopia quiver fastened at my waist. I had my bow in my left hand and my usual suite of battle brews in my pouch. If mayhem needed to be released, I was as ready as I had ever been to open the floodgates.

After a couple of minutes, we arrived at a small clearing that Herbert said would do. I asked if it wasn’t a little close to the guild compound, and he agreed. We walked a few more minutes and found another clearing.

Herbert took a small stone out of his backpack and began doing magic. I retreated carefully among the trees, in order to have a better view of the clearing. Herbert worked his ritual for an hour before sitting down for a short rest. He pulled a device from his pack and placed it on the ground. It looked like metal rods welded together to form a pyramid. It was obviously magical. He prayed to Solus for the sun god to shine his light down here to blind others from seeing what happened. Then he told us he fervently wished that Solus wasn’t Neriel’s god.

Now was the time to fetch the Seral, and healing salves to keep him alive. I asked Herbert if he was fine being alone in the woods. He didn’t mind me staying with him. Ilzo could carry Neriel, and Leopold could carry Ilzo’s new stash of healing potions. I had bought more than thirty for him, although less than half of those were salves.

Herbert told me he had been to one of my shows. That made me happy, so I gave him another one for free, and he was a very good spectator, displaying wonder and astonishment at my performance. I displayed a limited repertoire. Wearing armor wasn’t much of a hindrance, as I didn’t plan to do any contortion today, but I didn’t have any of my equipment, not even my rope. Still, Herbert applauded and cheered. Not too loudly, of course. It was night in the Bewitched Forest, after all. We didn’t want to attract any of its habitants.