Save or Die: Outcasts: Episode 20

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==Synopsis==
The party split up on various missions. This episode the focus is on Arachis in Holy City Ember Stone. He is looking into Thallus Whisperwood, the dead red-robed wizard, who used to live in this city. Arachis finds Thallus's old estate, but finds it too dangerous to head inside.
Arachis then focuses on investigating Thallus's Spellbook. He sacrifices a series of animals to learn more and more about the spells that enchant the book.
Arachis however gets noticed and is forced to flee the city. He meets back up with Ren, but has horseback riders in pursuit.
==Recap==
===Alone in the Holy City===
October 12, 1523. The party have split up after the events of the last episode. Auguste and Grau are helping escort the clerics to Autumn's Tower. Renatus is looking after the temple to Chis in Holy City Ember Stone during the cleric's absence.
Arachis spends time looking into his own affairs. In Holy City Ember Stone he finds that new copies of his wanted poster are still being made, despite Thallus Whisperwood's death being 2 years ago. Likely Thallus's family is maintaining the bounty. Arachis knows the dead red-robed wizard used to live in this city, the address (Dockin Manor, Salamander Lane, Holy City Ember Stone) is written in the spell book.
Arachis studies He casts on Thallus's Spellbook and detects a strong magical aura. When the spell is cast the words "Basic Passphase" appears on the first page of the spellbook. There are then 39 pages of spells and 57 pages of gibberish (garbled meaningless text), 2 blank pages, and on the last page is an illustration of Thallus. Arachis confirms that the gibberish text isn't because of .
Arachis also has Kartmaster's Spellbook (the dead Voraci Wizard from episode 19). He spends some days to lean the names of which spells are in this spellbook. 
Arachis wants to cast on the spellbook at a higher level to try to gain more information. One way to do that is with blood magic; sacrifice an animal in a ritual to cast the spell stronger. Different sacrifices can result in a stronger upcasting.
===Arachis's Blood Magic===
The first thing Arachis wants to do on this rainy day is to buy a light stone (A stone with the ). Arachis cannot head into the magic shop himself for fear of being recognised as the killer of Thallus Whisperwood. Instead Arachis hires a day labourer to go inside to buy it for him.
Arachis asks the day labourer about where Salamander Lane is, and finds out it is inside the inner-city. To access the inner-city will mean going though the inner-city gatehouse where his wanted poster is.
Arachis then buys a living chicken from the market for 1 copper coin and heads back to his inn-room. Arachis then casts , sacrificing the chicken's life with blood magic to enhance the spell to a 5th level spell-caster.
Arachis sees the cover and all of the pages (blank, spell and gibberish) have an abjuration spell aura of moderate power upon them. Deeper into the spell book, on the gibberish pages, is another type of magic which Arachis fails to identify. Arachis theorises that the abjuration spell is a protection spell upon the book itself.
Arachis clears up the blood with some rags he purchased earlier, and takes the dead chicken to be cooked in the tavern's kitchen.
===Arachis's Inner-City Visit===
Arachis looks at the inner-city gate and sees that people give up their weapons and also are patted down. Arachis realises his spell will have to be carefully chosen to gain him entry.
Arachis then goes to Mercury's Messenger Service to find out what uniform their messengers wear (a short-toga). After backing out of a delivery Arachis leaves then casts to make himself look like a young messenger. He messes up and has his backpack and kris on when he cast the spell. So he decides to try it again tomorrow properly.
The next day (sunny) Arachis reconsiders which disguise to wear, and decides to make himself a younger blond man, but his remain the his same normal ones. Arachis casts and goes to the gates into the inner-city. Arachis is able to enter the inner-city without issue. Arachis then easily finds Dockin Manor on Salamander Lane. It is a gated estate, with the main-house being 3 stories tall, with a small wizard tower that goes up further up. In the yard are six children being watched by a nursemaid, 2 middle-aged nobles in nice chairs while 2 servants take care of the gardens. 
2 hours before sundown the 2 gardeners leave the estate. Arachis follows after them, out of the inner-city and to their home in the outer-city, a terraced house. The gardeners look related, perhaps father & son. Arachis believes the older gardener will have a key he can take.
===Breaking & Entry===
In the night Arachis knocks on the door and casts on the older gardener when he opens the door. His wife comes down the stairs, asking who was at the door. Arachis casts again, knocking out the wife.
Arachis casts , draws his dagger, and goes searching for the estate keys. Arachis searches the 3 bedroom, avoiding the son who is awake, but is unable to find the estate keys. Arachis doesn't steal anything and leaves empty-handed except for a the Younger Gardner's journal.
Arachis thinks getting into the Dockin Manor is too high risk without the keys and decides to abandon the idea, despite there perhaps being good items inside the wizard tower.
===Back to the Blood-Magic===
Arachis decides he wants to investigate the Thallus's Spellbook further. He needs a higher level of animal sacrifice with blood magic to possibly get more information. The +3 upcast tier is to sacrifice a Donkey, Cow, horse or oxen.
The next day (17 October?) Arachis heads out of the city to find a cow to sacrifice. At night Arachis enters a cow field and sacrifices a calf to upcast is to a level 7 caster.
The spell reveals that the second magical aura around the gibberish pages is a Moderate Alteration Spell. None of the spells that fit that description seem to apply to this book except maybe . But it would mean that was cast on each of the 57 gibberish pages in the spellbook.
Arachis then tries speaking synonyms to the words "Secret Passphrase" in common and gets no result. He plans to get the phase translated into other languages when he meets people who speak other languages and to try those.
Arachis spends some days trying to learn but fails.
Arachis then reads the Younger Gardner's Journal he stole. In it Arachis finds out that the Younger Gardner is in love with a young lady in the Whisperwood family. This information is entirely useless to Arachis who throws away the journal.
===Escape from Holy City Ember Stone===
3 weeks into his stay in Holy City Ember Stone Arachis is noticed.
A broke commoner recognises Arachis from the wanted posters and rushes off to report him for the bounty money. The guards are uninterested, so the commoner heads to the Whisperwood Family at the Dockin Manor in the Inner-City. The commoner's words are taken seriously and the Whisperwood Family get on the trail.
4 people in half-plate find Arachis in his tavern. Arachis sees the guards before they enter and makes his escape upstairs to his room. Arachis collects his belongings and casts on himself. Arachis then leaves as the guards are heading to his room. The disguised Arachis walks past the guards and leaves the inn.
Arachis decides he has to leave Holy City Ember Stone and runs for the nearest gate. The guards are alerted to the person running in the street and try to give chase but Arachis easily outruns the men wearing heavy armor.
Arachis safely leaves the city, with the guards arriving at the gate winded. Arachis goes into the wilderness and goes off-road. He will wait for Renatus while in the wilds., but Renatus is expected to leave in 7 days.
===Hiding in the Wilderness===
2 days into his hiding he sees a squad of guards heading down the road. Arachis hides deeper into the wilds, a day-and-a-half away from the city.
On the 6th day Arachis is spotted and a farmer heads into the city to alert the guard.
On the 7th day Arachis meets up with Ren and they leave, around this time the town guard are alerted to what the farmer saw.
The guards, after searching the nearby area, decide to give chase down the road. They are 2 days behind Arachis and Ren on horseback.
==Experience==
No experience given this episode.
Category:Save Or Die: Outcasts Episodes
Category:Save Or Die Episodes
Category:Save Or Die: Outcasts