RealmsToowoomba Recap # 89 [RPG]

[2 Eleasis Continued]

While waiting to speak to a magistrate, Cain and Mellia continue to cool their heels in a magically warded cell. The wards do not preclude all spells however, and Mellia is able to cast two sending evocations. The first is a request to the old potion maker and midwife Hestia, announcing her pregnancy and asking for advice on carrying twins. When a reply comes, Mellia sighs and tells Cain that Hestia always forgets that answers to a sending must be of limited length. Since Mellia is currently without her spellbooks, Cain offers to contact Hestia for her the next day. He is embarrassed, however, when he realizes that pregnancy advice may include topics of a sensitive nature.  Mellia’s second sending is to Gideon, asking her scholarly friend for his assistance in researching Cain’s intended elemental transcendence and stating that she is “confused, frightened and unsure.”  The tone and wording of her message sparks grave concern from her friend who fears that Cain has hurt Mellia in some way - to the point that Gideon offers to drop everything to come and fetch her. Though she does not disclose the subject of her conversation to her husband, Mellia does tell Cain that she may have inadvertently caused Gideon to worry about her.  Eventually, a clerk enters and collects their names, places of birth and affiliations. This exchange of information is notable as the first time since their marriage that Cain publicly uses the name “Cain Nightflower.” As well, Mellia makes her conversion official by recording her religious affiliation to Kossuth. After the clerk departs, Cain and Mellia discuss their predicament, with Mellia’s displeasure extremely evident. However, Cain makes a point of telling his wife that if she expects an apology, it will not be forthcoming, as he does not regret taking what he sees as necessary action to protect his family. 

Across town, Markus is busily preparing for the charity bachelor auction with Urist in tow. He spends frantic hours in the shops, obtaining new tight pants, a cloak, and a low cut blouse. Markus also visits a hair salon, obtains a pedicure, and has Urist rub lotion into his scales in order to be at his impressive best for the auction. On his way there, Markus strikes up a flirtatious conversation with a trio of young ladies and entices them to attend and consider bidding on his company for the evening. The awestruck young women promise to do just that, much to Urist’s consternation.

At the traveller’s hostel, Ralkin continues to wait in vain for Cain and Mellia to put in an appearance. As the hours grow late, he accepts Shiro’s offer to locate a safe place to stay for the night and again obtains her ring of invisibility to use while she is gone. After his sister has departed, Ralkin sees a priestess of Auril enter the hostel. The Aurilite heads upstairs only to return several minutes later wearing the raiment of a caravan guard.  She waits until joined by a hulking, brutish human with pallid blue skin and a massive greataxe strapped to his back.  The Aurilite passes the brute a heavy coin purse and then follows him out of the hostel.  When Shiro returns after locating a safe place to rest, Ralkin tells her that he just witnessed death leaving the hostel.  The two wait to see if any of their allies will return, but when none do Ralkin declines the resting place found by Shiro and instead leads his sister to a safehouse often used by kenku in the city: a rat-infested maintenance shed near the docks. 

In the Watch detention cell, Mellia receives a sending from Jygil Zelnathra, thanking the mage for her warning but stating that nonetheless several guards and refugees died at the hands of the kenku attacker.  Jygil concludes by asking if the assassin will strike again.  Mellia offers a reply and indicates she may reach out to Jygil again in future.  Meanwhile, Cain prays to Kossuth and Mellia soon joins him. Afterwards, Mellia realizes that they are being scried upon, and that the person responsible is Gideon! Knowing that her friend will be alarmed to see her in jail, she does her best to appear calm and to indicate to Gideon that this is a misunderstanding that will soon be sorted out. Afterwards, she tells Cain that she can’t really blame Gideon for worrying and suggests to her husband that although she appreciates his desire to protect her, that a more proportionate response would have been better – particularly since they were in public and the man had not actually injured her. However, Cain remains unapologetic, simply telling his wife that the man threatened something Cain cares about and that had the blow actually struck her, his response would have been even sharper. Besides, he tells her, if the judge does not decide in their favour, they can simply leave. Mellia does not seem entirely convinced that this will work. Instead, she changes the subject, telling her surprised husband that she thinks it is past time that he started talking to their unborn twins. Though Cain protests that he has nothing to say, Mellia will not be swayed, telling him that the twins need to know his voice. Besides, she sarcastically points out, he has an entirely captive audience. Seeing no option but to give in, the obviously uncomfortable Cain goes ahead and preaches an entire sermon – several hours long – to his wife and his unborn children. 

For his part, Markus arrives at the auction site. Urist takes a moment to pull the auctioneer aside to gain an ‘understanding’ with the man that any arrangement Markus makes tonight is not permanent (which, being true, the confused auctioneer hastily agrees to). When the moment comes, Markus struts onto the stage accompanied by a self-created show of magical light and sound.  A bidding war soon erupts. However, even as the bids climb higher and higher, a voice like a foghorn sounds out over the crowd. Markus looks up in surprise to see Bettina, the beefy sailor’s widow who took a great shine to him during his first encounter with the Carnivale Intrepid. After Fargrim told her of Markus’ death (but not his resurrection) and said that the swordman’s dying words had expressed his love for her, the grieving Bettina had journeyed to Waterdeep.  Despite Bettina’s many sailing-related metaphors, Urist is quick to sense someone attempting to make a more permanent claim on Markus and an argument erupts between the two females.  Bettina bids what remains of her inheritance from her first husband (over 500 gold) for the night with Markus, placing the impoverished Urist in a difficult position.  The dwarf  demands that Markus bid for her what he deems her worth to him. Markus glances from one angry face to another and chooses what he perceives as the wisest course: he bolts from the auction site without looking back!  Urist and Bettina continue to argue until Bettina challenges Urist to a lock-picking contest. Urist snorts in contempt and counters with her own challenge - to a punching contest! She follows this with a powerful blow to Bettina’s face and the statement “And you win the lock-picking contest!” before stalking off in pursuit of Markus. However, the frantic swordsman has gone to ground, managing to charm a room out of a friendly innkeeper.

El Capitan arrives to the auction late (having had difficulty finding the perfect tunic) and is ushered on stage as the final eligible bachelor.  The cat-man dances along the catwalk and declares himself to be, among other monikers, the ‘Arch Mage of Sweet, Sweet Romance.’ The bidding goes wild until a cloaked and hooded figure steps forward and makes a large bid. The figure pulls back the cloak and a woman wearing only leather pantries and a corset slaps her palm with a cat o’ nine tails and boldly promises to ‘make this kitty purr.’ To the cat-man’s obvious pleasure, she is declared the highest bidder and he heads off for an evening of pleasure and pain. 

Back in the jail cell, despite having made herself comfortable on Cain’s lap, Mellia struggles to fall asleep, unaware that her wedding ring contains a spell of sustenance that limits her need for sleep and food. Eventually, she asks her husband to distract her with tales of his childhood and Cain recounts some of his history with Renold, the sausage seller, who was a frequent party to Cain’s pranks on Felix Ruul. As the story ends and despite her protests that she is wide awake, Mellia lapses into a sudden slumber as the ring compensates for its support of not one individual, but a mother and two babies. For his part, Cain sits up all night, doing his best to keep his wife comfortable. 

[3 Eleasis 1372]

The next morning, Cain and Mellia are finally called before a black-robed Magister. However, before they have the chance to offer their version of events, the Magister explains to the Watch officer who arrested them that several witness statements collected the previous evening do not support the prosecution. Incredibly, the affidavits uniformly state that the victim was carrying uncovered barrels of lamp oil and recklessly tossing tindertwigs about in a futile effort to light his pipe! Instead of murder, the statements point to mere accident.  Despite the Watch officer’s protests that the witnesses he spoke to right after the explosion said nothing of the sort, the Magister concludes that he has no choice but to release the accused.  The surprised couple wisely remain silent, unable to believe their good fortune.  Their goods are returned to them and they are promptly released into the street. 

Moments later, they gain some insight into their sudden release. A man casually strolls near Cain and, in a quiet voice, says “you done good, kid, real good—we thought your ship hadn’t even arrived yet!  And talk about sendin’ a message!  Hard to clean up, mind you, we coulda used a warning, but that get-up you’re going with is fantastic!  Ain’t no one gonna think you’re nothin’ but the religious zealot you look like!”  The man proceeds to tell Cain that he appreciates Bartimaeus coming through on his promise to send someone, and that if he’s not headed back to Calimport right away, another opportunity might come his way through the usual means. Cain, though obviously angry at the man’s words and tone, glances at his wife and at the door of the Watchhouse and manages to stifle his violent impulses. For her part, Mellia is buoyantly happy to be free and able to continue with their errands in Waterdeep. Her annoyance with her husband appears to have evaporated. The couple attempt to seek out lodgings but suffer from bad luck: the inns they come across are still booked full from the recent festivities.  Although offered a less-than-legitimate opportunity to stay in a noble’s townhouse (while said noble is visiting a distant city), the two decide to return to the hostel and seek out their traveling companions.

Across town, Markus spends the day visiting purveyors of magical goods and attempting to negotiate a good price to turn his Elven courtblade into a magical weapon. After first gaining an audience with the vain but impressive wizard Tessalar Hulicorm, Markus decides to seek out a better price elsewhere.  He visits the modest home of Kappiyan Flurmastyr, a mostly-retired mage who now devotes his time primarily to alchemy and gardening.  Markus berates the old man and storms out when the price he’s quoted is higher than Tessalar’s!  Returning to Tessalar, Markus arranges for the work to be done in two days and for a discount for turning over the sword of the dead half-orc Ikenvar and a magical buckler.

Having returned to the hostel, Ralkin and Shiro find that El Capitan is the first of their allies to return.  The cat-man appears happy even if rather the worse for wear after his eventful night out. In fact, in addition to walking funny, El Capitan sports a saucily worded brand on his back that he appears completely unaware of. Ralkin borrows Shiro’s ring of invisiblity and sends her out into the city once more, this time seeking a valuable magical item that would allow him to use the fabricate spell to create items through magic. Shiro visits Aurora’s Realms Shop and is told that such an item could be delivered in ten to thirty days with the lodging of a 20% deposit upon ordering.  Shiro returns to the hostel and informs Ralkin that the item he wishes is available for purchase, but Ralkin says he can barely afford the price of the deposit, much less the full cost of the item.  When Shiro suggests using less than legal means to obtain it, Ralkin notes that he has publicly denounced doing things like that. However, he does ask his sister to make enquiries.

Cain and Mellia finally arrive at the traveller’s hostel and are reunited with Ralkin and El Capitan, where they explain that they were detained due to a misunderstanding. El Capitan explains about the bachelor auction and of having witnessed some of Bettina and Urist’s confrontation over Markus. Talk around the table turns to accommodation for the night and Shiro suggests using her safehouse, though Mellia notes she would prefer to conjure her own magical mansion. For his part, Ralkin states that he does not wish to be separated from his bag of holding and will continue to stay at his own safehouse for now. Shiro’s suggestion of conjuring the mansion within her safehouse appears to be ignored for the time being. Urist returns and is upset that no one has seen or heard from Markus.  The dwarf is adamant that he did not run away but must have had something very important to accomplish. El Capitan buys ale for the table, though only Urist agrees to drink with him. However, shortly after imbibing the liquid, El Capitan begins to talk strangely - noting that it feels as though his ‘tongue is not there.’ He attempts to stand up and falls, hitting his head on the table before Urist drags him out into the street to continue carousing. 

While talking with his friends, Ralkin realizes they are again being scried upon, though once again he is unsure of the culprit. Shiro suggests it could be another assassin while Mellia offers Gideon as a possible candidate. Ralkin takes the opportunity to ask Cain to use his healing skills to relieve his stiff and uncomfortable muscles - a residual side effect of the poison inflicted on him by the swarm. Shortly thereafter, a stranger bends down to tie his shoe nearby to Cain and in hushed tones provides an address of a “problem” that needs “fixing.”  Cain ignores the man and also asks Shiro not to follow up on what she may have overheard.  Before she heads out with Ralkin to make enquiries about potential experts in item acquisition, Shiro again pressures Mellia to help reunite her with her shadow companion. The mage continues to express reservations about taking Shiro anywhere near Startop Mountain, though she does agree to consider the request. 

When Mellia finishes studying her spells for the day she casts several sendings to Gideon to attempt to relieve his worries. He tells her that he will research the topic of Cain’s transformation for her, but cautions her that ‘with changes in form come changes in mind.’ The statement causes her great anxiety, though she again keeps the conversation a secret from Cain. For his part, Cain contacts Hestia as promised and when his wife asks what Hestia’s response said, he assures her that it was that ‘everything will be fine.’

Ralkin takes Shiro with him to an area of the sewers in Waterdeep’s Dock Ward that is used by the local Murder of Kenku as a meeting point.  There, Ralkin speaks to an elder about looking into other avenues for obtaining a magickal means of fabrication.

Cain and Mellia head out into Waterdeep and visit Aurora’s. Mellia purchases a large quantity of scrollwriting materials and magical inks, as well as a scroll of telepathic bond. After they exit the shop, El Capitan runs across their path, pausing briefly to speak to them, before running off shouting that he can ‘taste the colours.’ As they walk back towards the hostel, Mellia too begins to display out of character behaviour, though hormones, rather than alcohol, appear to be the culprit. She uses a spell of message to quietly pass along increasingly naughty suggestions to her husband. When they finally reach the hostel, Mellia is overcome by her raging libido. Moving to a nearby alleyway, she quickly conjures her mansion before dragging her confused but willing husband inside to have her way with him in private. 

Early evening comes to Waterdeep and with it, El Capitan finds himself waking up in an alleyway by the docks, feeling extremely thirsty, and with his clothes on his head and not his body. After quickly dressing, he moves to leave and sees that his path is blocked by a pair of unfriendly sailors armed with short swords. El Capitan makes pleasant conversation but the men sneer at him and allude to the ‘fine price’ he will fetch and extend an ‘invitation’ for him to visit their ship The Woeful Tide. When El Capitan politely declines, he’s told that if he doesn’t come willingly, he’ll have to speak to First Mate Gristle.  When El Capitan responds that he would rather not, he’s told that he’d then have to speak to Captain Scummock.  When the cat-man still declines, the two menacing figures advance towards him.