Books, Brawls, & Bewitchment

Leaving The Shivering Ent Inn in pairs the party split up to complete their separate businesses.

Blomf and Blitz find someone who directs them to The Slimy Toad tavern in their search for the underground fighting ring. They find the tavern and are led into an underground tournament arena called the catacombs where they (after namedropping Blomf’s father, the Glaceford Gladiator) sign up for an elite match under the aliases of Chluuumf Cald (Spell: Chluemmmfghth Calphd) and Tzilb of the Burning Shell. While waiting they take part in several lower-tier matches. They manage to win a couple of fights and earn some money through participation and betting, though Blitz struggles without his armour and sword, his stealthy use of magic aids him in battle. Blomf is eventually taken down in a close fight with a blue Dragonborn woman. They decide to head back to the inn to recover.

Meanwhile, Cassia and Myria/Alice found the tent of Melassina Moonflower, a woman wrapped completely in scarves and fabrics. She gives Alice a reading/session where Alice manages to talk to Celeste briefly, who had been missing for a while now. Celeste pleads for help before disappearing again. As they go to leave Melassina Moonflower displays curiosity about Cassia’s pink appearance and Cassia notices a loose piece of cloth on Melassina Moonflower’s face that reveals a long pointed pale pink ear. Alice heads back to the inn and having agreed to meet Damien and Malik at the Inkbury library, Cassia searches for a map shop.

(Blomf and Blitz manage to get into their room at the inn without a dozed-off Alice noticing and settle down for a rest)

Having impersonated the High Priest in an attempt to enter the keep and gain access to its library, Malik and Damien are taken to a dungeon. There they gain an audience with the actual High Priest, Cyrus Tanagathor, who takes an interest in them due to their skills and audacity and releases them with a warning, believing their intentions to be mostly harmless. He wishes *“May Beshaba be kind to you both.”*

Damien and Malik head over to the Eastern half of the city to find the library of the commons. They do some research on the Divine Duality and Valkur as well as inquiring about arcane texts. It is revealed that there have been night time break-ins to steal arcane tomes so they have very little in stock (though Malik manages to find a few new spells). The librarian reported hearing voices after midnight before fleeing home.

Cassia also arrives at the library, shaken by her encounter with Melassina Moonflower and drags Damien away to investigate her some more. They return and Damien, the master of subtlety, says *“I hear you’re pink.”*

She unwraps and reveals herself to be of elvish descent with pale-pink skin. Though disappointed that the woman is not a relative of hers, Cassia discovers that Melassina Moonflower’s parents were not pink-skinned and the pink skin she has may have more mysterious origins than just being hereditary.

Damien and Cassia share a nice moment where Cassia shows Damien the compass left with her as a child and reveals how she was adopted by a human couple (who also adopted another girl and two boys who became Cassia’s siblings). Damien reveals how his father has gone missing. The two reconcile after their animosity during the events of Episode 4: Scales and Strife. They then return to the inn.

At the library, Malik checks out the last magic tome and sets out to find a weapons shop where he sells the stone kobold shield and kobold spear. He then returns to the inn where Blomf has come to consciousness and is being fed stew by Blitz.

In discussing their day, Cassia, Damien and Malik agree to return to the library one of the coming nights to investigate these burglaries. The party is shocked when Blomf’s bloodied and beaten form emerges from the room and Blitz tries to cover with a story of them being attacked in an alleyway, though he comes under heavy suspicion from the party. Blitz manages to turn the questioning on Damien who reveals his and impersonation and Malik’s arrest.

That evening, Blitz has a vision sent by Valkur warning him of “threats on land march[ing] ever closer to the shore.”

Malik sends his owl to keep watch outside the inn and a cat appears and starts pawing at the owl. Seeing that the cat is magical in nature, Malik brings the cat inside and he and Damien witness the cat’s transformation into a 16/17 year old girl who explains she is from the college in the East of Inkbury. After asking her a few questions about the college and its magical teachings, they let her go on her way.