DAY 271 (6th Nightal)(December) cont ...
To continue then, the fellows from Waterdeep were comfortably ensconced in the Coronet and Cabbage. Berum, feeling rather out of place in a human tavern, pulled the hood of her cloak up and kept to the shadows.
Arahel was in the form of a dwarf, but let the imagine down by just ordering milk to drink from the bar.
Fenrir wandered over and talked to the owner, Ian Turband. Part of the plan that Cavu had concocted was that a house or similar would be found to use as a discrete base of operations. Fenrir did not really do discretion, but tried his best and gained from Ian the name of one Adrenin Boor, who apparently owned an old school house in the east side of town that was not being used.
Fenrir sauntered down to Adrenin's address and was met by a footman at the door. Adrenin was not in, but his son Terek was who explained his father was expected home the next day. Fenrir left his name and said he was at the Cabbage and if he wanted to strike a deal on the School House Adrenin would find him there.
He then went to the Stinky Ferret tavern, a tavern in the northern poor quarter of the town. Billi was also there, as they had both heard there was a disused tannery across from the tavern that may be for sale.
The proprietor of the Ferret was a larger than life fellow called Captain Varkin Shemlock who styled himself as a retired nautical cove. Fenrir talked to him, while Billi approached a quiet group of gnomes.
When they left they both had the name of Grannie Umpie as the lady that owned the deeds to the tannery. Fenrir also later discovered his pocket had been picked and he was lighter by twenty gold or so.
Fenrir went down the hospice where old Grannie Umpie resided and was so charming and urbane that she gave him the deeds to the tannery without asking for a penny.
'Oh young man! Take the deeds, I've no need of them!' she declared.
Meanwhile, Durz was back at the Cabbage making sweet orcish love to his new bride. So much so that the neighbours started to complain to the landlord and he sent one of his men up to request a little more decorum.
Durz answered the door naked, 'WOT?'
The person that had knocked was a fellow half orc who did not give his name but said,
'The boss says you've to make less noise. Understood? Less noise!'
Durz grumbled and slammed the door, but was a little less raucous from then on.
Later, around seven o'clock, they all met and went up to find Cavu in his room. It was the best one in the inn with a separate living area and bedroom. For his own reasons he was eating his meals here.
Once they were all in he said,
'Well, since you lost all the money I gave you, and your cleric to boot, things are going to go a bit differently. I'll have to hide out in the inn while you chaps do the things that need doing. Here is the plan then. Firstly, I have written down all the clues for where to find the graves you'll need for the final clues. Once you have the last clues, this will give the location where the sword and ephod has been put.
Dig them up and bring them to me.
How you do this is up to you, but try not to draw attention to yourselves!
After that, we will start thinking about getting past the Forgotten King and down the rabbit hole that the Vanguard of Sertrous disappeared down two years ago! I'll deal with your cleric situation, in the mean time, here are some things that will help alleviate his loss'
He handed each of them a magical healing pine cone, that could be used to heal wounds once a day.
He carried on, 'What else do I need to tell you? Ah yes, there are agents of the Vanguard in Kingsholm so try and avoid them as much as possible. Keep a low profile. Also, Dwerry has just arrived, but she caught a cold out in the snow and is warming up in her room.'
An hour later Fenrir and Arahel flew out to the Kingsholm graveyard, a massive complex of graves, tombs and crypts, far larger than the town of Kingsholm required and of ancient origins.
Here they soon found the three graves, of Bokk, Wulfgar and Banjax, who were all buried together in a quiet section. All was as they expected. They noticed a single light, some distance away from a guards hut or somesuch but other than that the place was deserted.
Billi and Durz, good companions and wanting to help, but not always thinking things through went down to the tannery to check it out. It was dirty and full of junk. They borrowed some brooms from the Ferret and started to tidy it up.
Eventually they all met up back at the Cabbage. Billi was so taken with the idea of the hospice that looked after the old people in Kingsholm that he asked Iain about it. Since Iain was on the town council Billi gave him 200 gold (the gold he had received from Jolly Underdown you may recall) which Iain informed him would do a lot of good.
That night Fenrir talked to Iain some more about the old school house and revealed to Iain that he had the deeds to the Tannery.
Durz made yet more noise with his new bride but did calm it down a bit when he was told he would be asked to leave unless he was more considerate for the other guests.
DAY 272 (7th Nightal)(December)
That morning they had breakfast, then Billi went to the general store to get more equipment for the cleaning and repair of the tannery.
Both he and Durz then went there to fix it up. They brought Berum with them. Arahel turned into a donkey to help out (although in truth there was not much for a donkey to do) and mischievously Billi went to the store again and returned with a harness to put on her.
You can imagine that the sight of a gnome chasing a talking donkey with a head collar drew a crowd and it did. People from the Stinky Ferret and nearby houses all came to see what was going on at the tannery. So much for maintaining a low profile!
Back at the tavern Fenrir waited for and met Adrenin Boor and began preliminary talks on renting out the old school house. Having two hide-outs is not a bad idea, but it was a pointless exercise as will be proved later.
Dwerry meanwhile was recovering from a chill she had picked up while out on the Thar and after he'd finished with Boor Fenrir spent the rest of the morning tending to her and turning on the charm. This, he had been instructed to do by Cavu. It was all part of a plan cooked up by them both.
The workers at the tannery returned to the Cabbage for lunch, then went back and worked until nightfall.
That evening, Billi and Durz sat drinking and talking in the common room. Billi noticed a young gnome wench giving him the eye and went over to talk to her.
'Hello, what's your name? My name is Hilda,' she said.
They flirted a bit, but Billi was still in love with Erin. When he described her to Hilda she replied,
'Perhaps I can arrange for you to meet her...If you follow me outside...'
Billi willingly followed her, but was held back by Durz who sensed something amiss.
Needless to say, it all kicked off. Hilda turned into Erin, for of course it was her and made to fly off with Billi once again. The others reacted too quickly though. Durz held her up long enough for Arahel and Fenrir to come down from their rooms.
Arahel, not familiar with the word 'overkill' turned into a Beholder at the foot of the stairs and caused everyone in the common room to flee for the doors and jump out the windows.
Arahel used one of her eyeballs to cast Finger of Death and came close to killing Erin in one hit, but the erinyes survived and made a run for it. Before teleporting out she whispered in Billi's ear 'Meet me at the east gate at midnight.'
[A side note: As a druid I am, of course, very impressed at Arahel's ability to turn into such a powerful aberration. They don't call them aberrations for nothing though, these beasts go against nature and on hearing this story my first reaction was 'she is playing with powers beyond her ken'. I think though, as will be learned later, I was misjudging her.]
Arahel, opening her central eye hit the area before her in an anti-magic field. It came too late to stop Erin, but did make a seemingly innocent bar patron turn into Karhad.
He tried to flee into the street but was caught and beaten up by Durz, Billi and Fenrir. While the eye was on him Billi was free of the charm and Karhad could not fly off.
Before they could question Karhad though, the Mia Desarna and the town guard arrived arrested the lot of them.
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