Zoom 2021-04-01 21:00

## Umar and Bazin go looking for work at the Shanah Temple.

On their way, they meet the cleric to whom they handed the Wild symbol, who gave the following details:

* Confirmed it was a Holy symbol with the Avatar unsummoned. (Party assumes the cleric was killed outright by the blast when Onwen's symbol blew up.)
* The Avatar was specialised in 'focused' destruction and breaking things – eg disintegrate rather than fireball. (Needed to destroy Onwen's symbol?)
* Cleric would have been about 11th/12th level
* The symbol itself was a reasonable piece, but not masterwork class – probably made by a Giant smith, and was about 20 years old.

There was no wet work available at the Shanah temple (unless we wanted to sign up to their army), and Umar and Bazin were directed to the Citadel. The clerk there said that new notices were going up every day or so, but the two that were relevant to us were:

1. A bounty of 30gp for a halfling bandit named Kheeran.
2. An investigation required of 'monsters' to the west, with reports of a farmhouse being attacked. (About 8 hours west of the city.)

The party decided to apply to the authorities to take on the monster hunt.

## Garaf learns Read Magic:

5gp and a successful learning roll later, Garaf learns Read Magic. (Twoo can learn it off him, and the hobbit mages duly Write it down without trying to learn it.)

## Garaf reads Vinmira's scroll:

It is a verbose set of contradictory instructions – generally random directions to or from places. Garaf determines it is probably a steganographic code with the message hidden within it rather than a cipher or similar.

However, at the bottom, Garaf is able to determine in a simpler code the name 'MORAC' next to an embossed symbol of the Wild. Umar remembers that Morac was someone high-up in Torgan.

## Dougal, Hamish and Garaf look at Onwen's ledger:

Dougal and Hamish spend the day getting nowhere. Garaf has a look at it and points out the columns that are clearly Names, Traded items, Amounts and Dates. The ledger appears to start from around July last year – so we assume that there would be previous years' ledgers around somewhere.

Some of the names are repeated, and there appear to be mainly 6 different items being sold in various quantities – but the amounts are only around 1gp or so.

## Bazin reviews the (hidden) wine cellar:

The wine cellar was not unused – just rarely so. The wine is about 40-50 years old, including some Sarantaplo. He is not able to find any other secret compartments.

## Joshua engages an agent:

The agent will charge 5% commission, and a contract is signed over a shrine of Perceval. He will sell all the spare armour and (non magical) weapons that we have and purchase the required silverware. (He later suggests that the wine is worth a couple of gp a bottle, but may be over the top by now.) He will try and find people interested in our spare magic items (V's scroll, +1 spear, +2 dagger of venom) to exchange for other items. Over the next couple of days he comes up with a couple of offers from people (3 second level spells for the scroll, a +1 longsword for both weapons or a +1 shortbow plus some magic arrows) all of which we reject.

## Miscellaneous.

* The hidden wine cellar is on the East wing of the house.
* The stairway down from Onwen's room to the trapped door is on the West side – and does head towards the centre of the villa complex (ie it could go to beneath the oak tree.)
* Cinderoak is not illegal in WhiteBeach, but it is not approved of.
* The clans have a presence in WhiteBeach, and would take a very low view of people using cinderoak.
* Wun does not have a 'flickering' presence from his new Avatar – that is something specific to Wildwood.
* Party decides that Garaf should use the ring of insight as 19 int gives immunity to 1st level illusions/phantasms, and he gets to use the ring of +1 prot too.

## Next Day: We're all going on a Bear hunt.

The party head off West to investigate. When they get to farmhouse that had been attacked (a semi-fortified stone building) they find:

* Sufficient blood to account for about two dead people
* Large bear-like paw prints
* Large claw marks (bear-like but not specifically recognisable)
* A horrible smell (unknown to Kirsten)
* Other footprints and evidence that a party of 3 or 4 humanoids had already investigated the area.
* Clear tracks of a body being dragged of to the West, followed by the humanoids (one probably an Ariel).

We follow the tracks, and Q. sends up Khurak to scout. She spots a campsite with several humanoids 3 to 4 miles away – the party decide to hoof it to the camp, despite that it will be well past dark by the time they get there. On approaching the camp, Wun casts a pre-emptive Strength spell on Brokev just in case of trouble, then the party approach and hail the campsite.

## Scouting for boys.

There are 5 teenagers at the campsite (4 humans, 1 Ariel), in makeshift padded armour and with improvised weapons. The camp fire is not concealed, and they didn't notice us coming until we hailed them. Having thought that it would be an adventure to go out hunting a bear, they are now feeling a little bit scared...

The party, as seasoned professionals (ha-ha), secure the campsite as best they can and set up watches while the kids tell their story.

Dougal worries that he might have left the kettle on the stove in the villa, while Quercuis imagines a whiff of burning aromatics, and Joshua's keen hearing might just have detected a dull thump emanating from the direction of White Beach.