January 19, 2008 - The party arrives in Cauldron and makes their presence known.
Things start off at the Lucky Monkey Inn. Vargas and Jeppy arrive first, with Ogilvie. Ogilvie is exhausted so he immediately unloads his carpets and goes upstairs to sleep. Jeppy spots Morate eating alone at a table in the dining room. Jeppy walks up and cuffs him in the back of the head. Morate tries to throw his mug of ale over his shoulder but guesses the wrong shoulder and misses. As Jeppy picks on Morate a little longer, Huron, Artanis & Ankhin Taskerhill arrive. They enter just as Morate throws his plate of food at Jeppy. It misses, and the food hits Taskerhill right in the face, who falls back out of the inn in shock. Huron bends down and picks up the food (chicken leg) and eats it, and loves the taste.
Vargas buys Morate a new meal to cover the incident, in return Morate buys Vargas a drink. Vargas gives it to Jeppy, Jeppy gives it to Pig (who is under Jeppy's barrel) to get Pig drunk. Vargas attempts to pay for the meals with the jester coins he looted from the dead thugs that attacked them on the way to the Lucky Monkey, but the innkeeper, Nather, points out the jester stampings and comments that he's never seen coins like this before. Vargas apologizes and pays with regular coin.
After they calm down, Taskerhill leaps in, wondering if there's going to be a bar brawl. Vargas steps up and says he is the one who threw it; Taskerhill looks up at him, raises an eyebrow and says "I accept your humble apology," and walks past Vargas to the bar. Vargas says to Huron and Artanis that he is sorry for the incident, and Taskerhill tosses back over his shoulder "I already told you I accept your apology!"
Nather asks for some interesting world stories to pay for the meals and board. Artanis volunteers and tells an awful story about tracking some thieves/cultists down a well. Nather doesn't seem impressed, until Artanis throws in some candles for free. Nather douses all the lights and the rest of the night is lit only by candlelight.
They meet Shensen, a drow bard. They are suspicious at first and question her, but they (for the most part) believe her story about running away from her murderous homeland. She starts playing a lute in the corner of the room, and everyone feels relaxed and healthy. Artanis however challenges her to a banjo-playing contest and rushes outside to start building one. It takes him four hours. Meanwhile, everyone introduces themselves. Eventually Artanis comes crashing back into the inn, interrupting the music and making everyone look at him. He says that the contest is about to start...and it's who can play WORSE. Shensen rolls her eyes but says fine, go ahead. He goes to play his first note and the entire banjo he's just created falls apart completely in his hands, instantly. She laughs, summons a banjo, plays a single note, and then says that she won, since he didn't even get a note out. Artanis shouts that he'll challenge her again, this time to a flute playing contest. He runs outside to start building it.
Vargas and Morate bond outside over...whatever. Vargas also crafts a crude flute, which at least makes noise, which is better than Artanis's stick that does nothing. Huron and Jeppy bond inside over Pig, who is sloshed. Because Huron is a druid, Pig seems to really like Huron. Jeppy gets overprotective and kind of pulls Pig away from Huron.
Shaun (as Jeppy, to Pig): THIS ALWAYS HAPPENS WHEN YOU GET DRUNK!!
Artanis comes back in and challenges Shensen again, and fails. He passes out from exertion and Huron drags him to their room.
The next day Huron & Artanis see Jeppy in daylight and realize they're all from the same town/know of each other. Morate joins up because he sifts some soil into the wind and it points to Cauldron. (What a coincidence!)
When they are leaving, they spot the troupe of baboons again, 30 of them. Huron wants to use speak with animals and find out why they're staring at them, but the party eventually decides not to. They head to Cauldron.
When they arrive, Taskerhill leaves after paying Huron and Artanis 12 gp each. Ogilvie leaves as well, says he'll be staying at the Drunken Morkoth Inn, and tells Vargas and Jeppy that if they ever need carpets, to look him up.
They go the Church of Pelor, where they find Kristof busily rummaging through the wreckage and salvaging an item here and there. Some townsfolk are helping him. Morate goes around back to inspect the rubble to determine if it was a natural collapse. Artanis starts chatting with the townsfolk, and finds out that a woman named Coryston Pike was worried about being kidnapped (and later was), and that Gryffon Malek and Krylscar Endercott, two other kidnapping victims, knew each other. They used to go drink together at the Tipped Tankard, a tavern near the lake streets.
The others talk to Kristof, and come to the conclusion that the Church of the Raven Queen is probably behind the collapse. Kristof says he doesn't like the Wee Jas clerics, but doesn't think they would really do something like that. He does mention how the Raven Queen church keeps trying to buy the land owned by the Church of Pelor, because they want to expand. Morate returns and tells Kristof he thinks the collapse wasn't natural.
Morate: It doesn't look like a natural collapse. Kristof: How can you tell? Mike: I'm a fricking dwarf!" Shaun: ...BITCH!
They help him scavenge until nightfall. They actually want to stay and help him rebuild the church, but he tells them it will be at least another week before they're even done salvaging and organizing what can be saved; after that, they have to start surveying and the whole rebuilding process. Vargas makes an architecture check and tells Kristof that the first thing they need to do is test the remaining arches and supports to make sure they can handle a new roof. Kristof says that should they ever need a place to rest, he's set up some cots inside the lobby for people who need shelter at night.
The party decides to go to the Tipped Tankard, to ask about Gryffon and Krylscar. The tavern is located right on the shore of the lake. On their way there, they hear the sounds of someone being attacked in an alley. They see a man in cleric's robes being beaten by three attackers.
They rush to his defense, and see that the three men are all wearing facepaint looking like a harlequin face. They defeat the men easily (burning hands, spear to the shoulder, Jeppy trapping one under a barrel). The one not speared and not barreled quickly surrenders. Vargas, who hadn't done anything yet, spots a woman in dark leather hiding up on the second story. When he points her out, she glares at him and says "The cleric lives because we wish it so, not because of your actions!" She then points to the cleric and says "Take these words back to your temple, priest! The children are lost and are no longer Bahamut's concern."
She then tries to climb to the roof and escape. However, Huron spears her, Artanis magic missiles her, and Jeppy spends a hero point to hurl his giant morningstar at her, and it CRUSHES her. She almost falls off the wall, but it is clear she is using a Spider Climb spell to stick on. Blood sprays all over the wall and she limply manages to drag herself to the rooftop and escape. Meanwhile, the uninjured thug legs it down the alley. The one who had been trapped under the barrel freed himself when Jeppy threw the morning star, and he rises up, sees what's going on, and then surrenders. They hear guards coming, so they stuff the guy back into the barrel to interrogate later. The guards arrive, about a dozen, led by a young captain named Skylar Krewis. He questions them, but recognizes the cleric, whose name is Rufus. He is a member of the Church of Bahamut. They listen to his summary of things. He kneels down to inspect the one remaining thug (the speared in the shoulder one) and recognizes him as Nilas, a member of the town guard. This makes the party very suspicious about the other guards, and they watch them closely. However, nothing happens, so after some more small talk, the guards leave with Nilas. Skylar tells the party that they intend to interrogate Nilas at the barracks, and if they want to find out what he said, stop by there later and ask for Skylar.
Afterwards, they ask Rufus what he was doing, and he tells them that there has been a terrible string of kidnappings lately, and a few nights ago four children were kidnapped from the Lantern Street Orphanage. He was trying to talk to the orphanage headmistress to find out more, but she was busy and asked him to come back tomorrow. On his way back to the church, he was pulled into the alley and attacked.
The party then interrogates the last thug, who says that they weren't going to kill Rufus, they were just hired to rough him up a little by Jil, the woman who was hiding up the wall. When asked if they were members of the Last Laugh, he says no, they just wore the facepaint because Jil told them to. He tries to explain that he just needed the money, but the party wasn't having any of that.
Hired Thug: Please, I needed the coin! I've got a wife and three kids! Artanis: Or is that three wives and one kid?!
He says that he will go turn himself in, but instead they tie him up, gag him and stuff him in the barrel again.
They head off to the Tipped Tankard first, explaining to Rufus that maybe there will be clues to both Gryffon/Krylscar's kidnappings and those of the children.
Inside are 2 drunks passed out at the bar, a fat, dumb, slovenly bartender named Pilok, and a chef cleaning the tables. They ask the bartender about Gryffon and Krylscar, but all he knows is that they used to come in lots but they haven't come in in a while. They try talking to the chef, a human man named Artem, who confirms this but can add little more. He does say that he has heard it's a band of halfling rogues behind it, something he doubts. When asked about the kidnapped children, he mentions that one of the abducted children, a young dwarf child named Deakon Stormshield, is fairly well known to the community. His parents, Dwern and Imogen Stormshield, were goodly adventurers and were nice to everyone, but they didn't come back after an adventure/mission once. Ever since (1-2 years) Terrem has been in the orphanage. It's one of Cauldron's sad stories that everyone seems to know about. When they mention the jester coins, he says they look familiar, maybe he's seen them here? When he finds out they're fake he urges them not to tell Pilok, as he would be mad and probably not pay him. Vargas TRIES to tell him but Pilok is too dumb, and actually challanges Vargas to a drinking contest. Vargas just waits until Pilok lifts his mug, then tosses his on the ground and pretends to have fallen off his stool drunk. Pilok chortles and say he likes that.
They escort Rufus back to the Church of Bahamut. He returns shortly to them with Jenya, a cleric of Bahamut. She begins to ask them to help about the kidnappings, but they reveal that they still have the one thug in the barrel. She is surprised and shocked that they aren't letting him go turn himself in like he said he was going to, but agrees that he probably can't be trusted to do so. She says that the church will take responsibility for him and bring him personally to the guards tomorrow. The party lets Rufus and a few other acolytes take the thug away. Jenya asks the party to help with the kidnappings. The party agrees, but asks that she tell them all about it tomorrow as they are exhausted. Jenya says by all means and invites them to spend the night in the safety of the church.
Jenya: I can see you gentlemen know how to handle yourselves. Shaun: (bursts into uncontrollable laughter)Experience points awarded: 120
Hero Point awarded for "fricking dwarf!...bitch!" quote to Mike and Shaun
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