Yoshi's notes

Date

4/21/2005

17th year of the reign of King Kevin.

Seventh day of "August". Late morning.

Weather: warm, sunny.

Characters

Carric Dendreu - Male Aasimar Druid 3 (with eagle Tan-kurun)

Caelesti - Female Feytouched Rogue 1/Sorceress 2

Talon - Female Human Bard 4

Yoshi - Male Human Monk 4

Log

Back at Conner's

Nessey tries to persuade Caelesti to sell the book, but she doesn't believe that anyone should have a book like that.

After several more futile attempts, she suggests we identify the potions and divide (the rest of) our treasure.

Conner: "So, back again!"

Yoshi says, "We have some potions we do not understand and would like your help with them."

Carric pulls out the potions. "Reddish, interesting. Half a dozen potions look like this..." He shakes it a bit, smells it, finger dip. "Magic Fang."

"Hmm. Clear. Practically nothing is clear! You're sure it's magic? I don't think it's a potion... I can't really identify it."

"Black with red flecks..." He examines it further. "This is a new one on me!"

"Thank you," Yoshi says. "What is your commission for your examination?"

"5GP."

Nessey says, "So we were going to split Dougal's stuff 5 ways. 320 GP. cure light wounds for Siobhan, Caelesti. magic fang for Carric and Yoshi. I don't know what the black one with red flecks, but I could take that. What about the gal-ralan?"

Carric says, "Ah yes! Let's see if Conner would like it." He re-enters Connor's shop and tells him about the gal-ralan.

"Given the drawbacks, I'll offer you 1/3 of what I would give you for bracers." He gives us 312 GP.

We figure out our treasure division. Nessey happens to have brought Yoshi's weapons, as well as a change of clothes for Caelesti, for which we are grateful. We give Nessey her division; we give to Yoshi money for his tithe; we give Caelesti 100 GP so she can get a familiar.

It is noon now. Carric prays.

After an hour or so, Carric goes to the Silver Harp. He sees Nessey, Talon, and Siobhan there.

Talon, "Hello, Carric! I've been looking for you. I have a gift for you!"

Caric, "A gift? For me? That's so sweet of you!"

Talon reaches into the deep pockets of her kaftan and pulls out a female weasel with a pink bow around its neck. She holds out the weasel to Carric.

Talon, "For your collection!"

Carric takes the weasel and looks it over. "Ahhh, yes, very nice! Thank you! But I don't think I will put this one in the bag."

Talon, "Now that you have a boy and a girl weasel, perhaps you will soon have a weasel family? Your special collection will expand!"

Yoshi enters during this dicussion.

Yoshi. "There won't be a family if they don't spend time in the bag together," he tells us, knowingly.

Carric, "I'll take the boy weasel out of the bag sometimes. For visits."

Yoshi, "How long can you keep it out of the bag?"

Carric, "About 10 minutes."

Yoshi, "That may not be long enough."

Carric, "Of course it is! I'm quick with my weasel!"

Yoshi chuckles and whispers some advice to Carric about women. They wink and nudge each other.

Carric notices Siobhan and Talon looking at him.

Carric speaks up, louder. "Talon, can you tell us more about this falling star you heard about?"

"Well, I heard that one night when the bane moon was full - a big flaming boulder came out of the sky and landed on top of someone's cow!"

Carric, "Did the cow die?"

Talon, "I don't know. If it didn't I suppose you could talk to it. It probably has a really great story to tell."

Carric, "Well, I hope it died instantly. I don't like to think of animals suffering."

Talon, "Well, then I hope that too. It would be nice to find some people who witnessed the event. It happened south of here. Let's go take a look."

Carric, "You know, Talon and Siobhan, both of you have fought by the side of the Weapons of Good: you might want to consider joining our group!"

"I'd like that. I always feel safer with nice, strong, brave men to adventure with!" replies Talon and bats her eyes.

Yoshi asks Carric if he asked Talon if she has any special skills with the items we could not identify.

"Oh, no! I forgot." He then proceeds to inquire of Talon and Siobhan.

Siobhan looks at it and thinks, but doesn't come up with anything useful. Talon has no idea.

Talon, "I could do an identify, but it will take a while and I'll have to crush one pearl worth 100 gp as part of the spell. Do you think this potion is worth at least 100 gp?"

Siobhan thinks the potions are not worth that much. She suspects the clear potion is a philter of love. She offers to buy it, but Carric suggests that she simply trade her potion of cure light wounds for it. She agrees, and Yoshi claims the potion.

Talon says, "Now that I'm part of your group, tell me about the kidnapping!"

Carric, "Well it all started here in Rowanesmead.... and then we met the Wererat.... and then Old Nell said.... and we saw the ritual happen on the hill and the shooting star... and we traveled to the Wagon Wheel.... and we met the Lizardmen.... and we got to Meadowsbrook.... and the guy with the carpet on the mule maybe had a body inside... and we wanted to get across the river and--"

Talon, "If you want to get across the river, why not take the ferry from Rowanesmeade? I'm surprised Nessey didn't suggest it, since she lives here!"

Nessey, "Well they didn't want to go back to Rowanesmeade and they wanted to get across the river right then in Meadowsbrook and they wouldn't have listened to me anyway and no one asked me anyway. So there!"

Carric, "Yes. Well. We thought someone had been kidnapped and sent to the Barbarians on the other side of the river. But when Ginessa looked at the hair, she saw a golden-blond woman on a horse, not a slave in chains."

Talon, "Barbarians do deal in slaves, though. And they don't chain them. If a captive was a fighter, for instance, they'd put her to use fighting. They also raid each others' camp and take hostages for ransom. So just because a slave starts in one camp, doesn't mean she'll stay there. Oh, and didn't you think it was odd that the woman on the horse was blond? That's not typical of Barbarians. Barbarians have dark hair. But their slaves might come from anywhere. Barbarians are really tough, you know."

Carric, "Yeah, especially in packs."

Talon, "About the only way to travel over there is to be a merchant and have lots of stuff to sell and trade. Otherwise you'll end up a slave yourself or dead. Have you noticed I carry several flasks of wine with me and a couple small kegs of Dragon's Breath Ale? And Elven bread and nuts and berries and such. Haivng stuff to trade has gotten me out of trouble many a time! And I'm a bit of a gourmet myself. Would you like to try some Cinnamon Wine?"

Carric, "I'm quite interested in the Dragon's Breath Ale! But let's save it for a special occassion." He winks.

Talon and Siobhan exchange meaningful glances.

Eventually, Nessey begs off to go to her home. We agree to meet there at noon tomorrow.

Carric and Talon go to the Registry of Charters and get her name added.

Later, we watch Talon and Siobhan's performance, then head off to bed.

[August 8th] In the middle of the night, Yoshi awakens from a dream:

He is lying on his back atop a grass covered hill. All around him, trees loom. He looks up into the night sky and sees the bright moon and the stars. He hear s the sound of crickets.

As he lies and gazes upwards, the bright moon sets and the bane moon rises until it is straight above him, large and red, its surface pulsing. Dead silence falls.

He feels himself rising off the ground. He floats up, up, up. The bane moon looms closer. He sees it more clearly. Its surface roils, as if it is covered with red and purple clouds. Closer, closer, closer ... and then, he sees that the surface of the moon is a face. A pair of empty black eyes opens, and the clouds at the bottom uncoil and extend towards him as if they were the tentacles of the abomination.

Just as the tentacles are about to grasp him, he starts to fall. Down, down, down, he plunges back towards the ground and the bane moon recedes.

Just before he strikes the ground, he wakes up in a cold sweat.

His interpretation:

The Bane moon seeks him. (gack!)

After noon, we meet again. All are there but Nessey! Carric gives Caelesti 8 goodberries he made the night before; she eats one. Carric explains that she should eat them only when wounded. "I was very hungry. I hadn't eaten much yesterday!" He also give 5 goodberries to Talon.

Talon tells us about her possessions, now that she is part of the Weapons of Good.

Yoshi has been sitting, a tad glum, looking towards the door. He says, "I wonder where Nessey is. I had something to tell you, and I wanted her to be here as well!"

Carric says, "Well, you know how flighty she is. We'll check on her later. You should tell the rest of us."

"Very well."

"I had a very strange dream last night. A Sending dream."

"What's that," people ask.

Yoshi, "It started out very pleasant. I was lying on my back in the cool grass at the top of a hill. The crickets were chirping. It was a restful summer night. The Bright Moon was up. All was well. But then the Bright Moon set and the Bane Moon rose. The Bane Moon swelled up huge in the sky. It seemed to draw me in. I seemed to float up into the air. I got closer and closer to the Bane Moon. I saw dark purple clouds over the moon. The clouds parted and a giant lizard-tentacle abomination reached out to grab me. Just then I fell back to the ground and woke up."

Carric, "That's horrible!"

Talon, "What a great story!"

Carric, "Do you think the moon creature was trying to eat your brain?"

Yoshi, "Whatever it is, I think it's after me! And I am very troubled by that!"

Carric, "Do you think it has anything to do with the cow?"

Talon, "Maybe, in the dream, he was in the cow's mind?"

Yoshi, "I need to discuss this with my temple. The one thing I am sure of, this makes it compelling we locate where the star landed."

We go off to Nessey's house. We knock on the door. The servant opens the door. "We're looking for Nessey. She was supposed to meet us!" "Why don't you wait here." Quite a while later he comes back and says, "She's not here. Looks like her bed has been slept in. Her clothes were draped over her chair."

"Did she leave a note?"

"No note." The maid comes down carrying Caelesti's equipment, and an empty vial. "This was lying on top of the other stuff." There is a little trace of a violet liquid: Caelesti's invisibility potion. Also missing is her tanglefoot bag, and her potion of cure light wounds, but everything else is there.

"How very odd. Are any family members here? Perhaps they might have more information." He goes away and comes back. "The mistress has not seen her daughter since last night."

We collect our stuff and leave the house.

"This is very suspicious!" Yoshi says. Carric looks about the grounds, and comes back, having found no sign of Nessey. We leave a note for Nessey that we will assemble at the Silver Harp tomorrow morning to head off south.

We go off to the Temple of Núadu to speak with Father Cahall to see if he has any response to the bird we sent. Father Cahall greets us. Carric introduces Siobhan and Talon. We discuss the message, and the interaction with the merchant. "Barbarians? Rugs? Very strange!" Talon and Siobhan say that that is pretty normal for barbarians.

Yoshi goes to speak with Father Trevor, the astrologer, to see if there is a connection between the fallen star and Yoshi's dream. "There's some association. There is a theory that it's inhabited... It's just a theory; we have no way of verifying that. It's interesting, but who knows?"

"Thank you, Father."

[August 9th] The next morning, at the Silver Harp, we meet. Still no Nessey. We go back to her house, she's not been back. We decide to go on; she knows where to find us.

We go to the lower town, and hire a ferry. 14 SP (2 GP). The far landing is at a small village there to service the ferry, surrounded by farms. Enroute, Talon contributes 20 GP to party funds, and loans Caelesti a pair of Bracers of Armor +1.

At the village, we spend some time to gather information about what's to the south, and what people might have heard about the fallen star. We learn that there are villages along the Rowan river. We're in another Duchy; the main commerce is with towns to the east. There are trails through the woods, which are used occasionally, but not much commerce. We noticed a star falling from the Bane Moon to the south.

We find a track. It's smaller than the track to Oakrille. We follow it south, Carric in the lead.

We go along. At noon, we stop while Carric prays for his spells.

As evening falls, we pick a campsite.

Talon sets up her hammock between two trees. She sets a cloud-shaped feather pillow on the hammock and a silk patch-work quilt for her sleeping comfort. She tucks a stuffed dragon doll under the quilt for safe keeping, while she is on watch with Caelesti.

We set watches: Talon and Caelesti on first watch; Siobhan and Carric on second; Yoshi on third.

During the first watch, a large grunting creature 10' long, a dire boar, is approaching suspiciously and grunting.

Talon: 12; Caelesti: 10; Carric: 10; Yoshi: 7; Siobhan: 5; Boar 1.

Round 1: The boar approaches.

Round 2: Talon screams, "Wake up! Wake up! There's a big boar!" She ignites her sunrod. Caelesti tries to sleep it. Carric wakes and stands. He tries to calm it with Wild Empathy. Yoshi awakens, stands and watches. Siobhan stands up and backs around to the opposite side of the fire.

Round 3: Talon moves back.The boar sort-of moves towards Carric and sniffs him. Carric feeds it. It wanders away.

We go back to sleep.

[August 10th] The rest of the night passes uneventfully.

The next day, we get to a farming village during the mid-afternoon.

Speaking to a farmer, we try to learn about the star-fall, and we warn him about the boar. The farmer tells us about a problem he had a couple of days ago, where a cow was taken from his field.

The farmer leads us out to the field. We see the field has been disturbed as if a giant mole was burrowing around under it. At the large hole we find that little remains of the cow - it has been mostly consumed. Yoshi listens at the hole, but doesn't hear anything.

Carric +270 -> 4,400
Caelesti +270 -> 4,400
Yoshi: +240 -> 7,300
Talon: +240 -> 7,300
Siobhan: +200