57. A Brewing Plan

* Clan MacLeod, Northern Margraves of the Rumidian Empire, are connected to the Infernal House Alekto. Looking to thwart them in the name of her patrons, House Telphousila, in the hopes of gaining her house's direct aid in the fight against Madog in turn, Clwyd and the party have come to Dunvegan Keep on the island of Newwe Rumidia during the week-long Harvest Close festival.
* The day is Fallingleaf 2. Having previously found the family of some halflings that went missing after attending the first night of revels in Dunvegan Castle, Poppy and Poe Tenpenny were sent by the party to look for people that went that night but did return. They return to the Drunken Dragon very late that night, having found someone that the group agree to go see the following day.
	+ Poop shows Wilfred a nice stick and a shiny rock that he seems quite proud of. He's keeping them in the bottom of the sock Pyt nailed to the wall of the ship's deck cabin to serve as Poop's bed.
	+ The group rest for the night.
	+ Taylor and Garret didn't come back, staying out drinking and enjoying the festival a bit.
	+ In the early twilight, Aerendyl and Clwyd have their usual four hours awake before the others. The pair ponder the imps around the castle, thinking the party might be able to make use of the fact that devils are fundamentally creatures of temptation and punishment (of mortals), perhaps getting the imps to change allegiance if the party can navigate the infernal politics at play here a little bit.
	+ When the others awake, Wilfred uses *sending* to confirm the location of Garret and Taylor, finding them to be disgustingly hungover.
* On the morning of Fallingleaf 3, Aerendyl, quartermaster of the ship, calls a formal meeting for all the crew that are present: Aerendyl, Clwyd, Pyt, Wilfred, Poppy, Poe, and Poop (and Callie).
	+ Poop, stood up very straight, gives an earnest military report on the state of the ship and his repairs. Clwyd, as bosun, has Poop focus his efforts on repairing the ship's steering oar next.
	+ Clwyd also tells all present about the imps at the castle in the form of ravens and crows. She explains a little about the nature of devils, how they're cruel and calculating, treacherous and scheming, but fundamentally they are creatures that stick to a rigid hierarchy, and the act of punishing mortals -- and tempting them towards choices that lead to eventual punishment -- is the fundamental mission they were spawned for.
* They go with the twins to a miserable, dirty halfling called Cade Goldfound, who lives in a nasty little home in the Marrows. This is the guy the twins found who attended the first night of the castle's revels but came back.
	+ They settle in to question the man. He's reluctant, and very rude to the party's goblin in particular, but a few gold coins get him to talk.
	+ The man's now on his third day of a hangover. His eyes are yellowed and puffy and his skin is pale, symptoms that stand out to Wilfred with his understanding of herbology. He keeps that to himself while inside the man's house.
	+ They learn that the events of the party were apparently pretty standard and as expected. People herded into a massive banquet hall, food and drink and smokes passed around, music playing, and a good time had. However, the man says he doesn't remember anything from the latter half of the night, apparently having drank too much.
	+ A few more gold coins and they convince him to give up the name of another: Ostran Reedfellow, a halfling that he says they might find at a tavern in the Marrows called the Maiden's Kiss.
	+ Outside, Wilfred tells the group that he thinks the man has been subject to a small dose of Belladonna, Deadly Nightshade. It's a crude sedative, deadly in large doses, and would explain the man's yellow eyes and multi-day hangover. Wilfred also knows of a herb that can prevent its effects, which the party agree to look into after chasing their lead with Mr Reedfellow.
* Next, the party and the twins head to the Maiden's Kiss, a very rough looking tavern in a rough part of town.
	+ Poppy convinces the group to let her go first and try and pave the way for them, saying that it looked like a spot where fights start quickly, and that the party having to blow people up in gouts of fire wouldn't help anything.
	+ After a quick signed conversation, Poppy accedes to her brother's request to go in with her.
	+ The party wait outside for about ten minutes before going in. They see Poppy is on the upper balcony, apparently talking to a fair sized group of people that are sat down, her brother next to her.
	+ The place does indeed look rough as fuck. There are a few dice games going on, with the competitors all looking to be on the edge of drawing blades. The barman is cleaning his counter top, a big crossbow loaded and waiting right next to him. The patrons are mostly all small folk still, mostly halfings, with the odd gnome, dwarf, human, and even one or two goblins scattered around.
	+ Poppy comes down and finds the group, telling them that one of them can speak to Ostran while the others meet with the guy's boss.
	+ Up on the balcony, they see a dwarf kingpin sat down, flanked by his entourage of small folk.
	+ Pyt goes and talks to Ostran Reedfellow, asking him about the events in the castle. The guy is pretty nervous, doesn't accept Pyt's bribes, saying all money has to go through the boss, but he does appear to talk readily about what he knows. His story sounds similar to the other guy's, big party, doesn't remember anything of the second half, has been feeling awful for days after. And yep, he also has the yellow eyes and pale complexion.
	+ Meanwhile, the rest of the group are stood in silence while the dwarf gangster, named Siegfried, also in silence, apparently appraises them. Eventually he chooses to speak a little, whispering to a gnome at his side who then talks for him in a high-pitched voice. The conversation doesn't have much substance, but apparently Siegfried concludes that he could have use for people of ability, which he agrees the party must be. He says he has work should they be interested, and he expresses a particular like for Poppy, saying the woman has balls.
	+ The group take their leave, neither agreeing nor disagreeing to work for Siegfried.
* The group decides that they should use the Dogtongue herb Wilfred knows of to counter the Belladonna for a bunch of party goers.
	+ They go to the docks, find a herbalist, and buy enough Dogtongue to make tea for 100 party-goers.
	+ Next they buy fabric in the colours of the castle livery, enough for two Medium and two Small disguises to be made.
	+ Clwyd and Wilfred return to the ship with the twins. They set about brewing a huge batch of Dogtongue tea, and get Poop to make disguises for them in the style of the castle servants. A generous amount of honey stops the tea tasting awful, and the group are confident that between Pyt's *prestidigitation* and Aerendyl's *druid craft* they can get people to enjoy the warm drink on a cold evening stood in a queue.
	+ Pyt and Aerendyl go to High Town, find a massive silversmith shop, and set about buying some fancy decanters for the tea. Pyt strikes up a fast friendship with the fat clerk, one Godfrey Silver, while pretending to be someone he's not: a noble named Pernetindale Gold. He also learns that the shop supplies all the silverwork needs of the nobles in the city and most for the island at large.
	+ Team Tall return to the ship, and Wilfred calls Taylor and Garret back as well. When the two zombie-like men arrive, Aerendyl uses *lesser restoration* to cure their hangovers.
* And so, they put the tea-based plan into motion.
	+ Pyt, Taylor, Poppy, and Poe all dress in the servants disguises, with the tea distributed among them in the fancy silver containers.
	+ The group all get a horse-drawn carriage over to the castle approach or near enough.
	+ They realise they didn't get cups, so Wilfred hastily makes a deal with the Crown and Log Pin pub, buying 50 of their mugs outright for the extortionate price of 5gp per mug.
	+ Aerendyl has turned himself into a hawk and is perched on a rooftop, looking at the bustling crowd.
	+ Wilfred is waiting at the Crown and Log Pin, looking out to the back of the crowd.
	+ Pyt leads the other three in disguises, shouting and beating a path to the front of the crowd, as the group had seen the castle workers doing before. At the front he announces that they're giving out some lovely tea to warm those waiting revellers, a gift from the castle. Since there are no guards or such on this side of the gate right now, nobody catches his duplicity.
	+ They dish out the drinks to 100 party-goers at the front of the queue, Pyt trying to reason out people that he thinks won't be too rowdy.
	+ Clwyd pushed her way into the crowd for a bit but then left with the other four as they passed back through the crowd. Those five quickly went back to the ship and got changed. They gave the twins, Taylor, and Garret the night off, with Clwyd informing them there'd be hell to pay if they got as drunk as they had the night before -- slipping into her new role as bosun well.
	+ Back in armour and their normal outfits, Clwyd and Pyt headed back to the castle approach, spending the night with Wilfred in the Crown and Log Pin pub. Aerendyl remains outside in bird form for the night. They're mostly waiting for the party to end and the attendees to return through the gate at this point.
* Deep into the night, well after midnight, hawk-Aerendyl catches glimpses of conflict on the rooftops. Then suddenly a cloud of crows are on him, using mobbing tactics, apparently just out killing birds for the fun of it.
	+ He flees into an open shutter window at the top of the Crown and Log Pin, entering into an unoccupied room. He turns back into his elf form.
	+ Suddenly, three big spiders are on him, the imps transformed. They all bite, their hellish poison ineffective on him after the River King's care, but the teeth still effective.
	+ He kills one with a powerful *blight* spell and gets another with a *rotting roots*, earning a few more bites for his trouble.
	+ The third one turns invisible and beats a retreat. Aerendyl wounds it with another *rotting roots* but it's not enough. It gets out the shutter window.
	+ But the eladrin is wearing his Autumn season, his Season of Death, anticipating a conflict. He struggles to flee now, struggles to leave an enemy to retreat with information.
	+ He uses his fey step to appear again on the rooftop he was perched on for most of the night.
	+ Then he uses *locate creature: imps*, looking over to the wall of the tavern across the alleyway, hoping to find the fleeing invisible spider-imp.
	+ But his one-track mindset would be to his downfall! The spell tells him the nearest imp is on the same roof as him. He turns and sees the rest of the mob of crows, 12 of them.
	+ They descend on him in a hurry, pecking and scratching, splashing each cut and wound with ineffectual hellish poison.
	+ He's able to slay another with his *blight* spell, but it's soon replaced by one he'd wounded back in the inn, a crow again now.
	+ Even with their poison having no effect, Aerendyl falls to the weight of their attacks.
* At about 4 in the morning, the castle approach gates open, and party-goers begin stumbling out into the night, a few of them throwing up here or there.
	+ Clwyd, Pyt, and Wilfred leave the pub and go observe the crowd.
	+ What seem to be all the people Pyt dosed with the tea eventually stumble out, as do hundreds of others.
	+ The group realise Aerendyl hasn't come to join them. They don't find any trace of him on the rooftop where they knew he was. And Wilfred can't use a *sending* spell because he wears the bracelets they all do that resist such magic.
	+ The trio stand in the street, drunk party-goers flowing away into the night, a carriage coming out from the castle gates, and Aerendyl nowhere to be seen.