Caelesti's notes

Date

08/02/2007

Log

Carric was upset that the two helpless were-creatures were slain. Mavis said everything fine now. She said to collect the rewards and return the ledger to the authorities. Talon was too worried about going to prison for killing a merchant in his own shop to stick around, so she fled to the inn.

Carric, Caelesti, and Mavis collected the wererats' belongings. They locked up on the way out, and headed to Malcolm's house.

Malcom's house was empty, except for the guard dog. Calesti tried twice, unsuccessfully, to put it to sleep via a Sleep spell. Out of spells, she called Carric over to befriend the dog. That was successful. Mavis and Caelesti then snuck in, located the ledger and other incriminating evidence, took it, and snuck back out. The party then headed back to the inn.

On route, Mavis mentioned an alternative to turning the ledger over to the temple, which was turning it over the Thieves' Guild. Carric and Caelesti preferred to give it to the temple.

The party met back at the inn, retiring to Carric's room to converse privately. The resulting plan was to return the ledger to the temple in the morning. Talon insisted that Carric hold onto the evidence, so Caelesti handed it over. Caelesti invited Mavis to stay in the ladies' room, since it was the middle of the night. Talon then asked to stay in Carric's room. The two pairs retired separately.

In Caelesti's room, Mavis exclaimed about how exciting the evening was and complimented Caelesti on her "thieving" skills. Caelesti agreed that it was fun and that it was great using her skills for "good".

In Carric's room, Talon was still agitated and wanted to set up watches. She took first watch. During her watch, she sent a message to Brianna. It stated "Brianna, evil book (see image) found and ring of slave traders, Caelesti acting bloodthirsty, 2 strangers offering help, but I'm suspicious. Larger plot? Advice?" The reply was "Take help when offered, honey, but be on guard. Caelesti's mind is her own. Don't worry too much. Keep me informed. Have fun!" The rest of the watches were uneventful.

In the morning, Caelesti and Mavis were well rested. Caelesti meditated to recover her spells. Carric and Talon were still too tired to do so, but they had not cast many.

The party headed to the temple. They got an audience with Father Cathal. Carric told of the events of the previous night. The father seemed pleased with the death of the nefarious wererats. He asked if the party would mind if the temple could again use magic to question them more thoroughly. They agreed. They also fetched Connor from his potion shop.

The wizard, Ozzy, cast Detect Thoughts. Father Cathal first questioned Connor. The temple verified that Connor owned the book, the book was stolen, and he hired the party to recover the book. Connor even gave the names of his contacts to Father Cathal, information that he had refused to give the party, even though it would help them recover his book.

Father Cathal questioned Carric next. Carric told about their detective work and the battle in the warehouse that left two wererats dead. He said that one wererat turned out to be Malcolm Sneed. And he concluded with the return to Malcolm's house to get the incriminating evidence.

Father Cathal questioned Mavis next. He asked her how she got involved. She said that she had met the group before, and had a need to help them.

Talon was next. She elaborated on all the event of the mission until Father Cathal cut her off and tried to steer/limit the story as best he could. Talon continued on, eventually ranting about Mavis's influence on the party, leading them to breaking and entering and killing unconscious opponents. Father Cathal sent the party out of the room so that Mavis could be questioned in private. After the party left, Talon continued to rant about Mavis and Caelesti's behavior.

Mavis came out of the door smiling. Talon burst out, "Why did she kill the wererat?". Father Cathal asked Talon and Carric to enter. Caelesti was going to enter too, but Mavis asked her to come with her and join the others in the inn.

Father Cathal told Talon and Carric that Mavis did have her secrets, but that she did indeed want to help the party for some reason.

Mavis and Caelesti headed off to a seedier section of town. Mavis whispered to a young boy and took a seat on a bench as the boy ran off. Mavis continued reminiscing about the thrill of the night before, while trying to see if Caelesti would care to do more of the same. Caelesti made it clear that it was so satisfying because it made the town a better place. Mavis understood Caelesti - but not vice versa. When Squint appeared at the bench, the three returned to the inn to meet the others. Squint gave the party members their rewards. He asked if the party would consider additional tasks for them in the future. The party said it would depend on the mission.

The party then headed to Connor's shop to collect the reward from him. Connor was pleased to get the evil book back and paid the 1000 gp that he had promised. He asked the party to keep him in mind if they needed to have potions identified or if they needed potions. Talon thought he meant for free, so Caelesti asked for clarification. He agreed to identify potions for free if they had any right then. The party had two new potions from the wererats; one was Protection from Good and the other was a magic item.

When the party returned to the inn, there was a note from Sir Phineas for Talon, requesting her bardic talents to perform the next night at his house. That evening, the party escorted her close to Sir Phineas' house. Out on the street, Caelesti cast Message on the party so that Talon could communicate with them if she were in danger. Talon then went in to perform, did well, but was not able to get any information from Sir Phineas.

Talon's notes

In the werehouse:

There are unconscioius and/or dead dogs and were-rats
Carric was going to bind wererat
Mavis said she would take care of it
Carric - oh, fine, heads to other one
Mavis said "I'll heal it"
Mavis slays the wererat
Caelesti runs over and slays next one
Mavis killed one, it raverts into human we do not recognize
Cael kills one, it reverts into Sneede, per Cael
Mavis looks
M "This is Sneed? "oh,oh!"
Carric "I thought we agreed to bind and you just killed and we could have questioned it
Carric "you Killed not Healed"
M - healed and killed are two sides of same coin
Carric no, no, no
Carric why didn't we discuss this? Why agree then do something different?
M we havea bigger issue here - we can talk philos later
M - we have two dead people and one is a merchant of Rowansmeade
At this point they call out Talon
Talon -where did these dead people come from?
Carric - they were the wererats
Talon - will anyone believe that? and at least one was down and unconscious when I fled into the room, why did you kill them?
Talon - we take foes in for questioning, that is our way, or used to be
Cale - what will we tell the authorities?
M - are we going to tell authorities?
T - will be strange working for theives guild and talking to authorities
Carric - we are not working for the thieves guild
M and T - yes we are - they are paying us
M - we can leave the dead bodies here and not mention it
Carric - No! That's not right - we are pursuing righteous activities
Talon freaks out about telling authorities and getting throw in jail again.
Long debate
Talon and Carric had agreed that we are supposed to take miscreants back alive, if possible, for questioning.
Carric firm on going to authorities
Talon concerned about the non-necessity of killing the wererats who now look like people and perhaps authorities won't believe they were ever wererats.
Talon wants to return book only and walk away from the rest.
Others don't agree.
Cael and Mav one side of argument about loot and bodies and Carric on other as regards what to tell
Talon gets fed up and leaves. Refuses any of the "loot" possessions of the dead people "ex-were-rats" for the time being
The rest of the party goes back to Sneed's house
Mavis rolls 1d20 (d20): [17] = 17
Mavis rolls 1d20 (d20): [15] = 15
Mavis rolls 1d20 (d20): [17] = 17
They fail to sleep the dog, but Carric befriends it, they obtain the ledger through thiefly skills
They return and see me having a drink at the bar of the Golden Harp
M is happy to have a drink and then go and talk in private, upstairs in the boys's room, which is to say, Carric's bedroom
Mavis has been staying in her own place, not at Inn, overnight
Talon and Cae staying together, sharing room at Inn
Talon interrogates Mavis about her contact in theives guild and discovers Mavis is a member of the thieves guild herself
Mavis speaks of honor among thieves, but won't explain the rules unless Talon joins the guild
Discussion of the bodies.
Carric suggests taking ledger to the temple
Mavis suggests taking ledger to thieves guild first for reward and collecting double from temple
Caelesti agrees with Mavis.
Talon and Car disaggree.
Talon says before we collect any money from anyone we go to Temple with book and ledger
Mav wants to wait until morning - business hours
Cael currently has book and ledger
Talon demands Carric hold onto book and ledger instead
Mav suggests we meet at common room at 9am and then go to temple
Cale inviites Mav to stay with us - in our room.
Talon immediately asks if she can share Carric's room tonight.
Carric agrees gleefully. Cariic, "Wow! This is a first!"
Carric offers to share bed
Talon says thanks, but no thanks
Talon moves all her stuff to Carric's room and beds down the floor
When alone with Carric - Talon suggests setting up watches - offers to go first
Cael and Mav alone in Cael's room - boosting each other's egos and complaining about Talon
They stay up late complimeningt each other
Caelesti spills her guts to Mavis
While Carric sleeps, Talon touches her bracelet and contacts Brianna: "Brianna evil book (see image) found and ring of slave traders, Caelesti acting bloodthirsty. 2 strangers offering help, but I'm suspicious. larger plot? Advice?"
Brianna replies: "Take help when offered, honey, but be on guard. Caelesti's mind is her own. Don't worry too much. Keep me informed. Have fun!"
Talon wakes Carric at 4am for his watch. Nothing eventful
We meet Cael and Mav at breakfast.
We head to temple, as per agreement
Knob lets us in, Carric does talking with Fr Cathal
Carric speaks of catching wererats in the act of going nefarious deeds, this intrigues Fr Cathal greatly, he craves minute details, obviously doesn't get out much more than Fr Cory
Fr Cathall thinks it is good the were-rats were killed, but Carric didn't explain they were unconscious, didn't explain moral issue, glossed over that
Carric says we locked up werehouse so authorities can go and investigate
Fr Cathal wants to question in magical way, read mind of Carric. Carric submits in the usual way, is taken to Ozzy, the wizard
Cathal wants to know if Mavis is a member of our group too?
Talon - Mav actually knows more about some of the details, perhaps you should question her too in your special way. All of us. Question all of us.
Cathal - except Cael is hopeless
Mav asks what that means
Cael - they can't read my mind
Mav - good trick! You have many talents!
We are brought to questioning room with Ozzy the Mage and Fr Cathall
Ozzy - we don't usually get 'em back this quick, what'd ya do this time?
Carric - we found some bad characters again
Ozzy - don't worry, one time you will slip up and we will keep you here for good
Ozzy reads mind first of Connor (who the temple fetched) the magic merchant
Fr Cathal asks Connor some questions - like "you are owner of this book?"
Connor tells of buying evil book from "young Nessey" and hiring us to recover after it was stolen.
Connor denies hiring Mavis, but agrees per rest of us.
Fr Cathall asks about people who were trying to buy book - asks Connnor to give names - Connor prevaricates - but finally names Sneed and Phineas
Fr Cathall looks at Ozzy, who nods.
Fr Cathall hands book to Connor and lets him go.
Talon reminds we need to be paid first.
Connor says come by later
Connor says he wouldn't cheat us and that we have witnesses anyway
Fr Cathall questions Carric next
We all look intently at Carric
Carric opens himself to probing
Fr Cathall asks what steps Car and party took to investigate Sneed and recover the book?
Carric relates how we spied on him and then broke into his house when he was away and found ledger and befirended dog, then went to warehouse (werehouse) to seek stolen spellbook and defeated dogs and were set upon by 2 wererats and killed them - glossing over the fact that we killed the creatures/people while they were down and unconscious.
Carric remembers and relates going back to Sneed's house for the ledger about slave trading
Fr Cathall wants Mavis next to double check the story
Mavis starts, but puts brave face on it
Mavis doesn't put down defenses right away
Mavis is spoken to sternly. She and Ozzy stare at each other
Ozzy the Mage starts a bit, then settles back and relaxes
Mavis glares at Ozzy, then looks at Fr Cathall
Fr Cathall asks how Mavis met us
She says she met us before on the road and helped us out "with a little problem" and glosses over the rest.
Fr Cathall, - how did you help them?
Mav - they needed help and guidance. I had contacts. We did what needed to be done and all is well, right?
Ozzy Mage and Fr Cathall whisper
Talon says - ask her why she killed the wererat
Talon is eager to be next to have mind read and questioned
Talon goes into her long winded discussion of why she wouldn't go into the sewers and how the others kept breaking into other people's homes and killed at least one wererat while it was down and unconsious, under the influence of the suspicious Mavis
After Talon's questioning, when she and Carric are waiting in the hall together, Carric chatises Talon for going into inter-party differences in too much detail and reminds her of the evils of slavery - which, for Carric, now seem to justify all other actions.
We argue among ourselves while Mavis is being interviewed inside again by Fr Cathall.
Mavis comes out the door. Mavis is smirking.
Fr Cathall says to Mavis, "okay then, just keep your nose clean" and starts to close the door
Carric knocks on the door and wants to leave Fr Cathall the ledger and talks to him about the slaving operation
Talon can not contain herself, "did you ask Mavis why she killed the wererat?" she blurts out to Fr Cathall.
Fr Cathall sighs and tells Carric and Talon to come in. Leaves Mavis and Caelesti outside in the hall.
Fr Cathall asks about a key and combination to safe, that Mavis mentioned to him
Mavis invites Cael to go with her and meet the rest of us back at the Inn. Suggests going to pick up Squint and get the reward, just her and Caelesti.
Fr Cathall says - so, what's on your mind? to Talon
Talon - Can we trust Mavis - after she killed a downed foe?
Fr Cathall - says Mavis has her secrets and own agenda, but means us no harm and for some reason feels like she owes us something
Talon then remind Fr Cathall that a shipment of slave are coming and baot needs to be met at the dock and the slaves need to be freed.
Fr Cathall promises to do the right thing per the slaves coming in.
We take our leave, but first Fr Cathall advises us to simplifie our life so we don't have to be questioned in a special way so often
Meanwhile, at some dive bar, Mavis and Caelesti talk and Mavis tries to convince Caelesti to become a more professional thief
Caelesti likens the fun challenge of thievery to the fun challenge of climbing trees
Mavis equates this to climbing up walls and through windows for fun and profit
Caelesti say, "yes, and for good."
Mavis gazes at Cael a long time and says she thinks she understands Cael very well.
Caelesti says "I don't know what you mean by that. I don't understand you at all, Mavis."
Tall guy with hat over eyes, Squint, comes along
Squint - Any luck?
Mavis - yes, we got it. It was a merchant who was running an illicit smuggling operation without the guild's knowlwedge.
Squint - you took care of it?
Mavis - yup
Squint - good, good, good
He smiles
Squint speaks of a message Mavis sent him and says he brought the reward.
They all go to the Silver Harp where Talon is drinking heavily with Carric.
Squint: Hello Hello
Squint - I understand you found and stopped the unlicensed thief?
Carric - yes, and he and his companion wererat are dead
Squint - good, good. Dead is best. No loose ends. No more *unlicensed* wererats doing stuff in this town
Squint slids a bag to each of us - glint of gold coins
We take the bags.
Even Talon, who still does not look pleased
Squint thanks us and asks are we open for other commissions in the future?
Talon - Perhaps
Carric - Perhaps
Mavis, to Squint,, "there is definitely some real talent in this group"
Squint - good, good
Carric - but only for work on the up and up
Squint smiles and slides out.
Carric leads the way to Connor to collect that reward
Connor thanks us and gives us 1k gp to split 4 ways. Offers to identify potions, doesn't specifically say for free, but Talon would like to interpret it that way.
Cael asks for reduced rate.
Cael pushes it and Talon too, as special for free for potions related to this adventure only
Connor gives in. Says black potion with red flecks is protection from good.
Carric pulls out the clear potion.
Connor says these clear ones are wondrous items, need identify spell.
Talon reminds everyone that she can do identifies
Carric thanks Connor. Says since Connor only has 1 client now - his book sale is easy.
Connor agrees and says he might offer us work again.
As we are walking away - Cael suggests checking up more on Phineas's activities.
When get back to the Inn - there is a message for Talon.
Message: "Sir Phineas and Lady Berenice of Darkgrange Manor request a performance from Talon Tallera, Bard. Date: (tomorrow) Time: 8 PM"
Talon, "oh, excellant, a chance to make some money honestly."
Carric, "yeah, hah, working for evil necomancers. Have fun, Talon"
Talon, "don't you want to check out this guy and what he might be doing with evil book?"
Car - I wasn't invited
Caelesti - I can dance
Talon - perhaps I could ask if i could take my co-performer?
In the meantime - Talon identifies: from wererats: convex lens on short chain of blue glass is tallisman of tensers floating disc
The stone with glittering sparkles of light is a glitter stone, throw it and it bursts and casts glitter dust, one time only
The clear potion is elixer of vision +10 on search
The next day, Talon primps, prepares to perform for Sir Phineas
Carric still has grudge against Talon for talking too much to Fr Cathall
Talon still feels justified
Caelesti puts Message on her and Talon. Caelesti and Carric wait outside the house of Phineas. And Mavis is along with Caelesti
Talon tells Mavis: "I am still on the fence about you. Admire your love for Gareth, but don't trust your hotheaded killing of downed foes."
Talon goe to the door of Phineas's house. She is wearing her best sliver clothing and jewelry.
Talon is met by tall taciturn butler.
Talon shows her card and is excorted into an ornate parlor
A servant girl comes with nice food and drink for Talon
Talon eats and drinks - careful not to consume any dairy products that might interfere with her singing voice.
Talon is taken to a sitting room with 8 people. Phineas and his wife and 6 others
Phineas is tall and thin, with silver hair, elegant black clothing, acquiline face, piercing grey eyes
His wife is short and thin, very pale, with silvery blond hair, long black frilly fress, elbow length black gloves
Other guests very dressed up, fancy people
Sir Phin says - so you are the Bard who left your card?
Sir Phin says they asked around and Talon has a good reputation
Talon rolls Perform Strings {Masterwork} (d20 + 11 + 2): [9 + 11 + 2] = 22
Talon rolls Perform Story/Song (d20 + 13): [18 + 13] = 31
Talon: tell story of Storm Giants
Talon rolls Perform Dance (d20 + 11): [16 + 11] = 27
Talon: little interpretive dance
Talon rolls Perform Wind Instruments (d20 + 11): [8 + 11] = 19
Talon rolls Perform Strings {Masterwork} (d20 + 11 + 2): [6 + 11 + 2] = 19
Talon rolls Perform Story/Song (d20 + 13): [9 + 13] = 22
All in all a good night, but not Talon's best.
Clearly Talon is a young bard - but shines in story telling
Sir Phineas thanks her. He wishes Talon well.
Talon suggests Phineas tells her a story as payment to add to her collection
Phineas is aloof about that and choses to pay her in coin of the realm instead
Phineas nods to his butler. Butler hands Talon a bag with a generous 25gp in it - very generous!
Talon thanks Sir Phin and says he has class
Talon reports to her friends "They didn't want to be friendly with me, I was not considered an equal, but they were very courteous and generous with me. I was impressed."

Time advances two weeks to next time.
Talon: Nightly night!