Session 2018/04/08

summary

• The residents of Quarrymill happily lead you back into town where a party is in full swing. Children are running around playing games -- including Pip, the young child, residents are playing fiddle music and dancing, and tables of food and drink have been set out for all to share. Your cart and chocobos have been neatly tied next to a watering trough next to the in. Ahead at one of the food tables, you can see Ajeri with a mug of drink in his hand, waving at you as you walk in. At another food table is a fat-ish, well-dressed older man which makes him stand out from the rest of the townsfolk, chatting with someone that Kyria recognizes -- a tall Miqo’te man with neatly brushed hair and the emblem of the L’fey family on his tunic. What do you do?

• Kyria and Skippy walk over to the Miqo'te man, who Kyria knows as J'pash. She says hi before she's interrupted by the fat man, who introduces himself as Townmaster Harbin and congratulates them on their victory. Skippy successfully steals his gold chain, shows it to Harbin, and secretly puts it back when the townmaster checks to see if it was actually his or not. Harbin leaves to find the rest of the party.

• J'pash informs Kyria that they heard she was in town and that the matriarch would like to see her -- and the rest of her party. He asks where Lady Elsie is, and Kyria tells him that she's studying accounting without giving too much detail.

• The rest of the party ignores Ajeri and starts helping themselves to food.

• Izuna finds a quiet corner in town to study the Tablet and the ancient spell scroll they found in the Void portal. Using his Researcher trait, he finds that the paper the scroll is written on is from far away, not from the local three city-states. He also figures out that if anyone would know about the tablet, it's Bedardoux, so he should seek out Bedardoux's own library or maybe colleagues that would know of his research.

• Pip comes over to try and invite Izuna to play. Izuna scares him off by threatening to put him on fire. Katalina chides Izuna and goes to try and comfort Pip.

• Townmaster Harbin comes over to the other group and points out that they've taken care of their cart and chocobos for them, and also thanks them for capturing the leader of the Redbellies which was tied up at their camp. Koto wonders if Iarno is actually the leader of the Redbellies and suggests that maybe they've captured the wrong person. Harbin says no, we were able to confirm with other Redbellies we captured.

• The party joins back up (except for Katalina, who is dealing with Pip, and Izuna) and decides to go see Iarno at the local jail cell. A guard is standing outside. They ask to see Iarno, and the guard is a little started and says he needs to go ask the Townmaster, so he asks them to stay there while he asks. As he runs off, Skippy steals his keys, allowing the party to go inside. Skippy stands outside to watch for the guard.

• Iarno seems surprised to see the party there and asks if they're here to mock him. They ask if he's truly the leader of the Redbellies and confirm that he was working under The Black Spider, but the Redbellies were his gang. The party asks where the slaves were being sold. Iarno says they join with various buyers through the black market and that the slaves are probably long gone by now. Kikko uses Detect Thoughts to confirm that he's not resisting telling the truth. Kyria tries to intimidate him.

• The guard comes back and Skippy successfully persuades the guard that the door was left open and that they were able to keep Iarno from escaping in his stead. The guard is grateful and calls them real heroes, and the party is able to leave without incident.

• Izuna decides he wants to talk to Iarno first, to find out more about the scroll. Izuna threatens at first, but then Iarno says he'll tell him about the scroll, if he helps him escape. He points to his stuff in a drawer, where a robe and a glass wand is being kept. Izuna takes the wand and leaves. He tells the guard that he's taking the wand, who tries to stop him but fails and looks perplexed about what to do.

• Ajeri and Wajeri run up to the party. They thank Koto specifically for being kind to him in his time of loss and tell him that they were able to bury their brother with his favorite magical boots because Koto returned them. They tell them that Kojeri would like it if Koto were to pay his respects.

• Upon hearing that Ajeri and Wajeri plan to pursue their dreams of opening the mine, Koto warns them about the Void portal inside. The brothers are at a loss, but appreciate the warning.

• The party heads to the grave site, a small clearing in the Twelveswood. As they approach, they see Garfield, who tries to leave without getting the attention of the party. The party stops and asks what he was doing, and Garfield asks for some privacy as he's here to pay respects to Kojeri and wipes a tear from his eye. After some failed insight rolls, the party steps away. Skippy successfully stealths to watch Garfield dig a little into the dirt, do something with his hands, then get up and walk away. Skippy approaches and tries to dig in the dirt in the same spot, but sees nothing. He informs the rest of the party, and Koto has Koda sniff in the spot who tries to communicate what he knows by sticking a stick in the ground and taking it out. Koto asks Koda to follow the scent, who runs off after Garfield. The party follows.

• Koto goes off to tell Wajeri and Ajeri about what they saw, and asks if they buried anything of note there. They follow Koto to the Deals on Wheels cart outside town.

• They arrive at the Deals on Wheels cart, which is closed up and Garfield is nowhere to be seen. They knock on the cart and a voice calls out: "We're clooooosed!" The party is stunned but then Skippy uses Persuasion to pretend he's a rich aristocrat with a lot of money to spend, causing Garfield to open up his cart cheerfully.

• Koda confirms the smell he's been tracking ends here, and Garfield reveals that he was taking a sample of earth from the gravesite because it's an interesting magical area, and asks for forgiveness for causing confusion. Ajeri and Wajeri seem satisfied with this explanation, and decide to go off to check the gravesite. Goldyna tries holding up her device to the earth sample and gets a small reaction.

• The party buys some stuff. Diane buys the Leather Gloves of Storing. Skippy buys the Plastic Sheriff's Badge with a 20% discount, thanks to Izuna giving Garfield a secret (there's Void portal in Mak-Tara Cave).

• Izuna also asks Garfield about the ancient scroll, and asks if he can buy it. Izuna says no deal, but Garfield offers some information and gil: the scroll is on Sharlayan paper a few hundred years old, and makes an offer of 1 million gil. Skippy says absolutely to not sell that scroll, so they keep it.

• The party goes back to the gravesite, and Goldyna holds up her device there, getting a larger reaction. Her hypothesis is that the clearing was caused by the same or similar phenomenon that caused Koto's family farm to fail. Koto plants a Gridanian Chestnut there, making a mental note to check back on it later. They also wonder if Kojeri was dealing with foul magic.

• They meet up with J'pash and take their cart and chocobo a few hours away to Gridania. They chat a little about their backstories along the way, and ask about what is in Gridania.

• They arrive at the L'fey residence, which is a giant mansion up some stone stairs. The mansion is white and designed in lacy, baroque style. A long covered walkway leads into the main entrance. Because it is late in the evening, J'pash arranges for their rooms (except for Kyria, who returns to her barracks in the servants quarter for the night and chats with her fellow servants). J'pash offers them access to the family library. Izuna looks for a book on Sharlayan history and learns that the spell scroll he has was written in a script that only Archons can read, Kikko looks for a book on dragon reproduction (and learns something useful -- we didn't decide in session), Goldyna looks for a book on mechanics (but rolled a 1 and accidentally picks up a steamy romance novel instead), and Koto looks for a book on Gridanian botany and learns about the properties of local flora. They take these books as night reading before bed.

• Skippy spends his evening at the local tavern and learns of a crew that goes back and forth from Ishgard, but haven't been able to make trips recently because they're having problems with their airship.

• The next morning, they have their audience with Marie L'fey, the mother of Elsie L'fey and the matriarch of the L'fey family. She informs them that they were looking for Kyria because she had an update on the tome that Kyria left with them. They were not able to translate it, but found that it was enchanted with some kind of Sharlayan cipher and wanted to check with Kyria about why a family tome was encrypted in this way and why her swordmaster might have it. Kyria didn't know -- Marie L'fey gives the book back to Kyria and asks if she can try and find out how this book can be unencrypted.

• Marie asks Kyria to report on her adventures so far. Kyria tells her about the incident with Bedardoux and the run-in with the Redbellies and The Black Spider, but leaves out any mention of void portals and the relics they found on their adventure. Upon hearing this, Marie asks Kyria to look out for the tome, as they were hoping to procure the book for themselves in order to keep it safe from misuse.

• Skippy asks Marie about recent technological advances (in order to learn more about what has changed in the last few hundred years), and she mentions the Aetheryte Teleportation Network which is maintained by Sharlayan scholars.

• After this audience, the party is invited to stay as long as they like and to reach out to J'pash if they need anything. We ended here.