2 - Case of the missing ingots

PCs

Fingal - human sorcerer

• Nana is a good and faithful person and I trust her implicitly.

• Nyree seems to have a secret they are not telling us.

Gildon - human swordsman

• Ithkan is good at investigating things and I want to learn from them.

• Fingal may be interested in my faith.

Ithkan - goliath grave priest / investigator

• Nyree owes me.

• Gildon is good at people stuff and I want to learn from them.

Nana - half-elvin grandmotherly healer

• Fingal is out of place and I will help him fit in.

• Gildon is someone new to me and I want to impress someone I have not known since they were a baby.

Nyree - half elf/goliath tracker/ranger

• Ithkan knows incriminating secret about me.

• Nana should know something about my father but won't tell me.


 New NPCs

Marshal Report

The inn was warm and the food rich.  The days wandering in the cold have left most of the party sapped, and they seized the chance to rest and recharge in real beds. Fingal in particular had a level of exhaustion from his time wandering the icy cold in little more than nightclothes.  

Ithkan has a better resistance to cold than most and some unanswered questions regarding Bigboi.  He decided to slip off to investigate while the trail was warm, and he asked Nyree to watch his back.  BigBoi’s flat was nearby.  The flat was a run down stable, and it turned out that one of Bigboi’s roomies is a former convict Gerome the "magic fingers" from Revels End.  At first he was close-mouthed with Ithkan, until he spotted Nyree in the shadows nearby.  Then he opened up, happy to see the man who helped set him on the straight and narrow.  Turns out he is now proud to be a masseuse and man of the night.  He told Ithkan that he and a bunch of other cons paid in to Nanny Pupu to get their fortune read.  They knew that BigBoi was going to be drawn in the sacrifice lottery but he stole their rent money and skipped town.  Gerome was not surprised to hear of BigBoi's death, since Nanny is never wrong, and the goddess will collect her due.  Ithkan offered Gerome help digging up dirt on his slumlord landlord to help give him time to get the rent together. 


Heading back to the inn the pair of Ithkan and Nyree ran into Bishop Alder who asked them to deliver a message to Gildon.  Gildon read the note without expression.   He thanked Ithkan and Nyree, said he needed to do something in the morning, and wished them a good night.  

During the night both Nyree and Fingal thrashed and mumbled in their sleep.  The rest slept more peacefully.

Nyree felt tired in the morning, but no one noticed anything out of the ordinary.


People had the following dreams:

Morning meeting with Sherriff Markham Southwell.  


“I know you are heading out soon but wanted to give you this stuff I found back at the station. (Marshal Sash with the seals of all ten towns marked upon them.). The badges can be pinned to them and they are big enough to be worn over your winter garb when traveling. Now know I am putting my reputation at risk vouching for you folks but honestly we need the help.  I’m retiring soon and most of the issues piling up can't be solved without going outside town and no one has been willing to do that recently with all the rumors going around.  You folks seem to have a way to travel that might help us reunite the ten towns.  Oh and before I forget about it, we had an old set of winter garb in the station (presents to Fingal). Now you look like a proper marshals.  Just remember you are still only provisional marshals until we can have a real quorum of speakers, so don't push your authority too much.  Sometimes flashing a badge helps get folks to cooperate though. I am just gad to have some help before I retire. I feel you have some time to get the hang of things and I will be leaving things in good hands.”


Nana runs home to check on her plants and community. Upon getting there finds that her Daughter Danika was staying at the Scholarly Arms nearby and wanted to talk with her.  Nana took a detour on the way back to the group but found that her daughter hadn’t been back last night.  Furthermore she was overdue 2 weeks worth of rent and at risk of being evicted, not to mention keeping some questionable company.  Nana paid off her daughter’s debts and made arrangements to have her things moved to her place.  by this point she was almost late to join up with the rest of the group for their mission to recover the dwarven caravan.


Meanwhile Gildon was busy with his mission from Bishop.  While walking downtown he was approached by one of Bishop’s subordinates.  The man was frantic.  “Lieutenant, the new sacrifice is missing!  We got a replacement from the Lusken Arms, but the guard just reported that it's gone without trace!  This time there aren’t even tracks leading away!”


Gildon reassured the man “Don’t worry we will figure out how to handle this, let’s all meet at the Break of Dawn in 30 minutes and we will plan something out.”  The man re-assured Gildon then turned to head back to the Northlook to get out of town.  But he had barely left the square when a female dwarf started yelling at Gildon.


Caravan master - “Where have you been, you lout?  You were supposed to return after setting up the packages in Caer Konig, but you went freelance for that white sorceress?  Who is going to do your work while you are gone? Sephek had been busy and you have a backlog. We are running out of sausages and wagon two is all ready to be processed but here you are in town without even a hello?  And now you look like you are getting fit to leave?  Are you too good for us now? Got something better going than the organization? You know that there are only 2 ways out and one of them is you die.”


Gildon responded - “look, there is some bad stuff following me, and you don’t want to be seen with me or the heat will be too much.”


Caravan master - “Well we are heading over to Caer-Dineval next.  If you shake the heat you can come and join us there.  Not sure where we are going after that but I am going to tell the boss I saw you next time I see him and you know what happens if he thinks you are more trouble than you are worth”

Gildon assured the dwarf that is was nothing he couldn’t handle, he just needed some time and he would catch up.  When he got back to the group he said he didn’t want to be seen leaving with them and was planning on slipping out discretely and catching up.  The thing was this time he was telling the truth.  Nyree was getting fidgety and anxious to leave while but there was still no sign of Nana.


This was the exact moment that Nana Applewhite was walking through the center of town and saw three kobolds in a trench coat lurking in an alley outside the Luskan Arms.  Nana approached and casually said, “It looks like there is someone who really wants to go in there but knows that there would be trouble if they did so.  What could an old lady help you fine gentlemen with?”


Three kobolds in a trenchcoat - “We need to tell lady but she said not to come there again.  The lady Vellynne needs to know Danika still hasn't been back to her room and other lady killed the kobolds in safe house guarding the orb and took the orb.  Please let Master Harpell know!  We would be much indebted!”


Nana - “I guess an old lady could go inside and say a few words.  You wait right here.” 


Nana then went in to the Luskan Arms and proceeded to order a shot of expresso from the barista at the counter. She got an excellent steaming glass with a side shot of fizzy water to wash it down with and an eyewatering price of 5 silver for the coffee.  The coffee was very good though and nana savored it before walking back out.  (She had only promised that she would speak to someone in there) The kobolds thanked her profusely for helping them and meandered off through town as Nana finally caught up the the party where Nyree was bemoaning losing daylight.


The group left town and were almost immediately rejoined by Gildon who had slipped out separately.  To make up for lost time Nyree led the group out and focused on making straight for the road between Targos and Termalaine but in doing so wound up crossing the dwarves tracks a few dozen times as they wove around in a slightly less effective route but interestingly enough the party saw the dwarven tracks went in a cave.


As the party pushed onward, the sky which had been slowly brightening since their departure this morning suddenly grew dim as if a curtain was pulled in front of it. Still short of noon the group was suddenly enveloped in a wall of white.  The temperature dropped to a bone chilling -80 degrees and the group was forced back towards the cave only to find that it was already occupied by a pack of Goliath hunters also sheltering from the storm. The Goliath recognized Ithkan and “the runt” and challenged the group to a contest.  The losers would feed the other group until the storm passes.  Ithkan convinced the hunters that instead of their proposed endurance contest they should play "pin the cave rat".  He drew a rat on 5th wall of the cave.  The hunters eagerly agreed. Their leader hit the target, but the other hunters were all boast and no bite.  Meanwhile Nana used a bless to boost the party’s chances and several party members made great shots putting the Goliath party to shame.  The Goliaths then shared food from their recent hunt they had been cooking over the fire in the cave.  They warned Ithkan that human soldiers had been looking for him and his brother.  The tribe said they had no idea where to find them but thought it might be best to avoid Wyrmdoom for a few days just in case the soldiers were still visiting. They then proceeded to tell improbable stories of their exploits to entertain each other until the blizzard cleared.


Having lost the contest the Goliath’s also agreed to show the party where the dwarven body they had seen had been located. It was a good thing they did so because after the storm there was no sign it was there other than a slight bump in the snow.  The party found the corpse of the headless, limbless dwarf, but only tracks of the sled the hunters had seen.  It appeared the sled had recently been removed by a group of small figures in snowshoes.  


Following the tracks the party found a pack of goblins, who “liberated” the sled of iron ingots and were pushing it towards a goblin war wagon pulled by two polar bears.  Now the party did not want to mess with any polar bears and took the chance to jump the goblin scouts while they were still out of sight of the main wagon.  Gildon charged right into the thick of things while everyone else provided covering fire.  A goblin planted his spear and impaled Gildon. But he magically shrugged off the disemboweling blow with a spell that blasted the goblin with ice flakes.  The goblins were sorely surprised and the group rained spells and arrows down upon them.  Ithkan's tough skin resisted an attack by one of the goblins, but another made quick work of Gildon, dropping him with a nasty blow.


Ithkan was able to call upon his God to halt Gildon’s premature death and brought him back to full health.  The rest of the group quickly cut down the goblin bandits.  Meanwhile the Goblin war wagon appeared to be having trouble convincing the polar bears to move.  The party chose to grab the sled of ingots and run back to Bryn Shander to get their richly deserved second level.  


Case log updates:

Help recover Dwarven Caravan (Solved)

Investigate situation around BigBoi's Death (Progressing)

Find missing marshals (In progress)

Investigate angry trees south of town (Next up)

Investigate missing mead (Next up)

Missing sacrifice redux (New)

Treasure

New investigation priorities / assignments

Questions we will explore next time: