Zoom 2020-12-10 21:00

These notes are superseded by the DM's official account in 
Norasak and Blue Tower are both independent. Blue Tower is just a small town with a bloody great Blue Tower.
Hobgoblins: ‘Came from nowhere’ - the centaurs could not find any tracks of where they came from – but nobody witnessed them appearing out of thin air.
Orcish stablehands: Even though we’re probably being ripped off ridiculously, the party decided to leave all five mules with the Orcs for the first week. Even despite Francis’ mutterings.
Francis – who had mentioned the kolbalds and ogres to the Ferry guards - checked with the gate guards at the city about refugees from Riverside, who confirmed there were some refugees in the city.
On the way to the ‘Flagon’ in Southmarket, we went via the ‘main streets’: We went past the ‘Temple of Shanah’ - a large walled estate (walls 10’-12’ high). There are guards at the gate but they don’t appear to stop anyone who enters – but there is a booth beyond where visitors are presumably ‘interviewed’ if needed. We passed through the Gold Quarter, and past the Knights of Shanah – a huge complex with 25’ high crenelated walls with guards and a completed ballista tower.
We arrived at the Flagon. It is nowhere near the quality of, say the Falling Star, but is far better than some we had passed.
The innkeeper is Maronay Moonshadow (female human) – she appears to be a priestess of Perceval (wears a symbol of two gold coins) and there is a shrine to Perceval in the Inn. A totally outclassed Joshua “negotiated” a fee of 3 silvers per person per day with dinner included, with a reduction of 6 nights for the price of 7 for a week paid upfront. We paid.
Mistress Moonshadow confirmed that the white bands, such as she wore, confirmed citizenship of Far Haven – an innovation introduced by Saratak about 6 months ago. She also sold us a map to our contact for Olg’s necklace for a couple of coppers.
We went to the address given for Olg’s delivery – a seamstress in the Gold Quarter named Miriam Silverhair. The shop – like all others along the street – was an up-market, fashion-conscious establishment. Several high quality silks and dresses were on display. We were asked to wait outside until Mistress Silverhair was available. During our wait, Caradoc cursorily cased the joints – each shop was a detached property, and between them were alert guards who were hidden sufficiently to avoid alarming the punters.
When Mistress Silverhair emerged and asked our business (Wun recognised her as being a Universal cleric), the party explained they had a gift for her from Olg in Northlake. She was not happy about this at all – the name itself seemed to cause offence. She initially refused to accept the delivery – but Garaf insisted that she accept it so that he could fulfil his obligation: So she formally accepted it, and then gave it back to us, telling us to keep it, and that she ‘never wanted to hear from him (Olg) again’. She stormed back into the shop. As far as the party could tell, she was being genuine in her reactions – even controlling herself to some extent. As the door to the shop closed, Caradoc recognised Vinmira loitering ‘with intent to be seen’ inside.
Back at the Flagon, we were told the rules of ‘no weapons, no spells’ in the common room. We decided to continue taking ‘standard’ precautions against theft (ie keeping valuable items on us) even though we had been assured it was a ‘safe’ establishment, but removed any fire-traps lest we burn down the inn. We agreed to pay for a private room for 1sp per evening (weapons and spells allowed!). The food was fair (highly spiced) and the wine Ok-ish. A "hobbit" waiter brought the food in – and as he closed the door, Vinmira dropped his illusion and stayed to have a chat with us.
We confirmed to him that we were here following up on Gohde/Cagruns orders to investigate the ‘legendary’ creatures. He declined to have a report from us.
He said that Mistress Silverhair was working on a ‘delicate operation’ for him and we should avoid her in future – but did confirm that Olg was an unwanted suitor for her attentions – and that this was not the first unwelcome gift to her.
Showing the jewellery to him, he was unable to see anything special about it, and did not believe it had magical properties. He had seen the type of writing on it before, but couldn’t remember where. He similarly recognised the elven spearhead as the same as the Centaur spears, but other than accepting that the writing was the same, saw no connection. We demonstrated the magical effects of the jewellery by Joshua donning the bracelet and necklace – and the +3 charisma was immediately apparent in demeanour and gravitas etc (ie rather than good looks!). Joshua was able to remove the jewellery without a problem. We explained that the same writing concealed a message about the breakdown of the Spell of Voids in an Elven tract we had researched.
A thoughtful Vinmira began to tell us.....