30/11/2020 - A Ghastly Gathering, Abrupt Ageing and Manifolding Madness

## Afternoon activities

Having failed to find Leticia / Moira in the black-market, the group had an afternoon to kill before their early start towards the Waypoint the following day. Galdor immediately suggested a cheeky visit to the “naughty” bar. Blagden was very intrigued by this, causing Galdor to quickly back-track and explain that it was a boring place that only adults go to. Not wanting to be bored, Blagden decided to instead spend the afternoon wandering the streets (read, stealing from rich merchants), with Kunai deciding to keep a wary eye on him. Unfortunately for Galdor, no one else wanted to accompany him to the Sea Horse, but he had a great time anyway.

Ash and Bayul decided to honour their earlier word and went to update Talos Chan on their progress. Ash explained to him how the letter had led them to three black market traders, one of whom had matched Moira’s description – suggesting that perhaps she was the elusive Leticia. However, as they hadn’t been able to find her, it was likely she had already gone to the Waypoint, which is where Goltorah was likely holding an illegal auction, and where the group were headed tomorrow. Ash added that it was possible the stolen child had also been taken to the auction, given Goltorah’s history for weird necrotic shenanigans, so they would keep their eyes out.  Talo’s agreed that this was possible and said that he’d ask the historical society if they knew of any necrotic rituals involving devil children. Bayul then asked Talos if he was able to lend them any fighters in case things at the auction got violent. Talos replied that he had no one spare right now, but would look into it.

## Factory finding

The next day, everyone awoke promptly except Kunai, who had had to be woken by a very loud Bayul trumpet to the ear. This made him very grumpy.  Elyan triple casts his wand of smiles to cheer him up, but sadly this only made him grumpier.

The west gate of Eastshore was still shut, but after giving the guards their names they were let through.  Galdor asked the guards if Moira, Goltorah or Venusto had left recently.  Apparently, someone called Moira Arlosath had left two days ago, alone, but the others hadn’t been through for a while. Bayul gave the guards a GP each for their help.

As agreed, the group waited outside the gate for Grace. However, as the sun rose there was no sign of her.  Concerned, Kunai used the sending stone to contact her, but got no reply.  Now very worried, the group decided to go to the factories outside town where she’d been hiding. Unfortunately they didn’t know where these were, but Elyan’s charm soon got this information out of the guards on the wall, who directed them to follow the river west for about an hour.

After an hour of following the river they group noticed several dilapidated industry / mill buildings ahead. The buildings were very old, vandalised and in a general state of poor repair. It was impossible to tell what had once been made here and the place looked completely abandoned. There were a few footprints around, but it was unclear how old they were. Getting closer, Elyan and Kunai noticed something moving in the trees near the factories and a body slumped against one of the buildings. Despite the obvious peril of the situation, Elyan asked Kunai to lead the way then hit him with a sneaky wand of smiles attack. Smiling horribly, Kunai led the group forward.

## A ghastly gathering

As they got nearer, several ghasts and a blue-hued ghostly apparition suddenly swarmed out of the nearby trees.  The horrifying visage of the ghost was terrible to behold, so much so that Galdor, Elyan and Blagden not only became terrified, but abruptly aged by 10 years! This was of little consequence to Galdor, but Elyan was horrified to feel his perfect face wrinkle slightly whilst Blagden was forced to go through puberty (and approx. 25% of his entire lifespan!) in the space of six seconds.

Ever ready, Kunai immediately attacked one of the ghasts, but missed. Elyan, still terrified, turned himself invisible and bravely ran away. Bayul, who was finally getting some action, struck one of the ghasts mightily before commanding Kunai to strike again. This this time Kunai struck true, massively damaging one of the ghasts. As Galdor fired several arrows at the ghost, the ghasts struck out at Bayul, Ash and Galdor, the latter of whom suffered critical damage and became paralysed. After taking a moment to deal with the mental consequences of going through puberty in 6 seconds, Blagden briefly considered picking the ghost’s pockets, before instead firing a crossbow bolt towards a ghast, killing it outright. Ash flurried many blows into the ghast next to him, dealing much punchy punch damage.

At this point, another ghost appeared and very sneakily possessed Bayul. As the other ghost brutally sucked much life out of Ash, Kunai killed another ghast, making it rogues 2, everyone else nil. A still terrified Elyan inspired Blagden before trying to make the ghost smile. It was not amused. The possessed Bayul then charged at Blagden, thankfully missing him with his mighty strikes. Galdor successfully broke out of his paralysis, but was then immediately attacked by another ghast. Blagden, who had realised something was wrong with Bayul, attacked him back, doing some non-negligible sneaky damage before disengaging and running away from the angry elephant. Ash continued to flurry manically but effectively at the other ghost, which made it very angry. The angry ghost tried to possess Ash in retribution, but Ash was far too wise to submit to such tricks. Kunai then made the score rogues 3, everyone else nil, before hiding behind a tree. Elyan inspired Ash, but not wanting to hurt Bayul, made him fall over laughing instead. Summoning his hunters mark, Galdor fired at one of the ghosts, evaporating it. Rogues 3, Galdor 1.  Showing far less restraint than Elyan, Blagden darted in to stab at Bayul, doing yet more damage to the unfortunate Loxodon. Still not wating to hurt Bayul, Elyan instead conjured a bullseye illusion on Bayul’s body to help Galdor hurt Bayul.  Aided by this, and remembering that Bayul actually likes being hit, Galdor attacked and struck deep into the bullseye.  Seeing Bayul looking bloodied, Blagden unleashed a wave of sleep energy toward him. This caused Bayul to keel over unconscious at which point the ghost was forced out.  Deciding that the others could deal with the last ghost, Ash sprinted over to Grace. He could see that Grace had a nasty stab wound and was either dead or dying.  As Bayul continued his sleep, the ghost attacked Galdor, but thankfully missed. The group then laid into the ghost, with Galdor striking the deadly blow to make the final score rogues 3, Galdor 2.  Feeling bad about sending Bayul to sleep, Blagden gave him a friendly kick to wake him up and offered him a healing potion for his wounds. Bayul thanked the goblin, even offering him some rare praise for his actions in the fight, but told him to save the potion for an emergency.  Despite the fact Bayul was already awake, Galdor slipped his tentacles all over him to try and “wake him up”.  Everyone agreed this was weird.

## Moira’s malevolence

By this point Ash had found a weak pulse on Grace and Elyan had managed to bring her back to consciousness with a word of healing.  As she gasped back to life, Kunai offered her a healing potion which seemed to bring her back to some semblance of stability.

Grace explained that Moira had stabbed her and left her for dead, and apologised for not trusting the group about her. Bayul asked if Moira could have been possessed by the ghosts, but Grace didn’t think so. Moira had come to ask her questions about the guild. She had asked such questions before, but this time had turned violent when Grace was unable to answer. She had been asking whether the guild had any items that allowed communication with or travel to the plane of pandemonium.  Ash wondered if these questions had anything to do with the devil child. This all happened at around 10 pm the previous evening. Grace had spent the night in and out of consciousness.

Bayul asked Grace why she had decided to hide in such a ghostly place? She explained that she had come here occasionally before as it was quiet due to the ghosts. She didn’t mind them, and they didn’t seem to bother her, so it had always been fine.

Ash explained that they were heading west to the Waypoint where they had an invite to an illegal auction that they suspected Moira and Goltorah would be at. However, Elyan suggested that they should first pop back to Eastshore to get the magically aged among them un-aged.

On the way back talk turned to Grace’s cat and Blagden’s rat. Blagden explained that he used to have a real rat that protected him, but now it was dead. This is why he now had his ratty familiar, and why his magical tattoo was a protective barrier tattoo that said, “RIP real ratty”.

## Manifolding madness

As they walked, Grace suddenly remembered that she had swiped a bag off Moira before she stabbed her. Blagden investigated it and realised that it had some arcane runse along the edge. Curious, Blagden placed a GP into the bag. Reaching in he found that he now had 2 GP! After some initial excitement, it was soon realised that this bag manifested replicas of a single item placed inside, but that the copy was worthless. However, this didn’t stop the group banterously replicating random items such as rat pelts, rings and a 2ft obsidian statue of a fire God. Blagden was very keen to be the holder of this bag. The other relented on the proviso that he promised to behave!

Back in the city, the group went straight to the clerics. After Elyan explain their situation, one of the more senior clerics restored them to their rightful ages and healed Bayul’s remaining injuries. Grateful for this, Elyan generously donated some gold to the church. Blagden donated a worthless replica of a ring, which he considered the height of generosity.

With everyone back up to strength, the group headed back out of Eastshore towards the Waypoint, with Grace, who was keen to accompany them, in tow.