“He is quite recognisable,” says Erudisia, “and he struggles to fit into Marliza’s dwelling. Also, I’d be partial to the Shield Heroines. Or perhaps Scholars and the City, though I’m not sure why. I can imagine fans saying ‘I’m a Bell’, or ‘you’re definitely a Meredith’ when they compare themselves to us.”
Little One’s face looks like a mix between a spilled bottle of purple ink and a mountain village after a seismic event, not great in other words, and indicates that he would be glad to relax.
You have, earlier in the morning, already changed back into your own clothing, having left the outfits you wore to the casino at the old warehouse before returning to “The Brine Widow.”
You prepare now to return to the Amberdune pack’s home.
Marliza pays the messenger lad a silver piece or two and the teenager agrees to carry the crate there. He hefts it onto a shoulder. He’s not particularly muscular, but he’s sturdy and obviously accustomed to such labor.
As you make your way through the busying streets of Baldur’s Gate made surreal by the morning fog, Marliza, in her black veil and long woolen robe, still seems off, somehow.
The messenger lad dares to smile at her as you walk and, while you might have expected her to return nothing more than a venomous glare, she simply ignores him, sullen. She engages Meredith in conversation quietly.
“You and… Bell. The way you look at her. It’s kind of obvious that… there’s something between you.” She continues in a whisper, her dark eyes scanning the bard’s for her response.
Merediths head is immediately on a swivel trying to make sure no one else had overheard.
Her voice an urgent whisper she pulled Marliza close as they walked.
" No! Well...yes....of course I do! How could I not Love Her? She's so.....I mean she's perfect. Just look at her!"
" No! Don't look!"
" Please don't say anything. Please! She's.....out of.....reach...she doesn't think of me that way....she won't......it will wreck everything if she knows!"
" Please! .......please......."
She pushed everything down deep inside before she exploded.
“I promise,” Marliza replies right away. “If the promise of… if my promise means anything. I won’t tell, no matter what happens.” Her voice is small but firm. “I just… since you know what it’s like to be in love. Because,” she continues, looking around just as Meredith had done, to ensure no one else hears her whispering. “Because I love someone too. And he loves me.” She smiles, sadly. “It’s just so hard sometimes, my family? You heard them, they don’t take my ideas seriously. But… He says I’m beautiful and really smart… and he’s clever and… we have a plan to get married… and set up our own shop. Some day…”
You continue walking, through the gate and — Marliza shows her pass — into the Upper City with its grand arches and columns disappearing into the fog which hangs around you. You walk past The Wide. The huge plaza is almost silent, but you hear workmen setting up several stalls and more merchants arriving unpacking their wares and produce from carts and beasts of burden. Then out of the Black Gate you proceed once again and into the Outer City. The young jackalwere has stopped speaking and seems mollified, having returned to sullen silence.
Quiet now pervades, a vacant silence in the mist, and your footsteps crunch loudly, seemingly, on the gravel road as you go. This is soon answered by rustling through the garbage crusting the edges of the buildings, which seem to push closer to you, left and right.
All this time, Bell has been chattering away to the messenger lad that is carrying the chest on his shoulder. "Have you always lived in Baldur's Gate? Is it always so busy? Isn't that chest getting heavy?"
The lad sometimes wonders if Bell ever takes time to breathe before another stream of questions bubbles forth.
"Have you ever been to that casino outside of town? I have heard the food and drink is very nice there. Do you gamble? They supposedly can turn just about anything into some kind of game to play and bet on." She goes on to talk about Candlekeep and the wonders of the library there.
(( totally oblivious to what Marliza and Meredith are whispering about... ))
{game log} Perception: Nat 20 +1 = 21 (( OOC: did NOT expect that kind of roll !!! ))
Suddenly, in front of Meredith and Marliza - a shower of sparks appears and drifts slowly to the ground in front of them.
Erudisia brings up the rear. Though the light tread of a trained dancer is still clear, her eyes are heavy and she seems focused only on taking one step after another, still exhausted after the long day’s efforts.
All this time, Bell has been chattering away to the messenger lad that is carrying the chest on his shoulder. "Have you always lived in Baldur's Gate? Is it always so busy? Isn't that chest getting heavy?"
The lad sometimes wonders if Bell ever takes time to breathe before another stream of questions bubbles forth.
"Have you ever been to that casino outside of town? I have heard the food and drink is very nice there. Do you gamble? They supposedly can turn just about anything into some kind of game to play and bet on." She goes on to talk about Candlekeep and the wonders of the library there.
(( totally oblivious to what Marliza and Meredith are whispering about... ))
{game log} Perception: Nat 20 +1 = 21 (( OOC: did NOT expect that kind of roll !!! ))
Suddenly, in front of Meredith and Marliza - a shower of sparks appears and drifts slowly to the ground in front of them.
The hope being to gain their attention without having to break the travel or shouted yells to 'be aware'.
"Yeah, I've lived here my entire life," the lad answers. "And no, Lady, it's sometimes busier yet, why, you should see the crowds in Highharvestide, and we just had the Breaking, when the harbor re-opened after winter. I ate more candy swirls and the crowd was bigger than anything you've ever seen, Lady."
"No, I'm used to the weight," he answers, shifting the box to his other shoulder. "Why, it's the barrels of ale my pop makes me help carry, those get heavy after unloading too many of em."
He listens with interest to Bell's description of the casino, eyes wide. "No, Lady, I've never... why, a penny earned is a penny saved my pop says, and I couldn't. I mean, just to gamble it after all the effort of gaining it?," he laughs uneasily.
Bell, while talking with the lad, called Petey by the way, has felt the small hairs on her arms crawling just slightly from the moment the group entered the Outer City. Well, it made sense that they were being watched, there were many windows and curious hidden eyes noting your passage to be sure. Yet, there was nothing particular to see until now. Over the last few seconds, Bell noted a particular shape on the rooftops in the mist, keeping pace with the group. And almost unnoticeable, like a mysterious echo, a thin strand of melody, high pitched like a ringing in the ears, subtle and arcane, emanates from that shifting shadow.
The rats, scurrying just out of view along the edge of the narrow street under the detritus of refuse, aren't involved in their usual behavior, poking through garbage for food, Bell realizes. They all seem to be united, moving almost like an organized band, moving to surround your party.
Everyone stops, we’ll say, when Bell’s sparks ignite. Because Bell critted her Perception and alerted the group, you may each take one free action before whatever was just about to happen, happens…
(You can all receive the benefits of a Short Rest over the course of the early morning hours prior to departing from The Brine Widow. Also, you have had time to attune your new magic item.)
Meredith pulled up short at the sparkles and quickly looked around for the source, she immediately noted the rats............rats...........and sighed, " Our odorous friend is back?"
" Marliza, might need your teeth shortly."
She shifted back slightly towards the others and reached out with her gifts to try and bring a little more illumination....
( Prestidigitation- Fireplay to light any candles, lanterns, campfires......bundles of trash that look like they could be a campfire? )
Bell mutters under her breath about pesky rats and attacks in the dark. She reaches into her pouch and affixes her crystal to her staff as she speaks a well used arcane phrase to the rock.
Smoke begins to sputter from a damp, crumpled newspaper lying in the road ahead of you (Meredith’s Prestidigitation), and then Bell’s crystal flashes to life and a warm arcane luminescence suffuses the street, revealing, atop gates and window sills and curls of refuse, and on the street itself all around, hundreds of rats standing on their hind legs and staring at you, eyes gleaming. Higher up, at the top of a creaky stairway leading to a shanty built atop one of the second floor roofs, two beady eyes pierce the fog…
“Why… it’s you, Milady,” comes a familiar voice from the rooftop. You see a familiar face, just for a moment, come into focus. The long-nosed rat face of the round-eared rat head of the wererat from the road south of Baldur’s Gate.
“All three of you Ladies, ain’t it? And without yer charmin’ pal neither? Why this’ll be more… intimate, won’t it? Only this time…” an empty potion vial clinks dryly as it falls down the steps. “This time all those spells’ll do ya naught against me, hehe!”
“All right-i-o,” the voice continues, humorlessly, “Let’s all stay calm. No need for anyone to get hurt, eh? Come on up here my pretty, you’ve done well for us, luv!”
There is a silence, and then Marliza replies.
“Mushika,” Marliza says, “I… I…”
“What’s wrong buttercup, rat got yer tongue?,” the wererat says.
“Do we, we don’t really need to… this time… do we?,” Marliza pleads.
“Why nonsense, Marliza, luv. Our plan was perfect, and perfect it remains, as long as we follow the path we laid out. Now get your pretty little behind up here. Now, Marliza!”
The teenager stands stock still for a long moment, then turns to Petey and gently takes the chest from him, and carries it like a great weight, to the stairway and ascends the first few steps. She stops, then turns, her expression wide-eyed and conflicted as she glances around to the three of you. Her gaze lands on Meredith, pleading for understanding.
“Now… you Ladies just lay down your jewels and rods and whatnot and you’re free to go!,” the wererat is saying.
(We’re not in initiative yet, but initiative will be trigger by a statement of intent to attack. When that happens, we enter initiative with Bell first, followed by the wererat before Erudisia or Meredith.)
This post has potentially manipulated dice roll results.
Meredith looks up then down then at Marliza then she smiles, " Oh, dear. Him? I've got to say Marliza you could do a lot better.......I mean theres Petey over there already twice the man that beaky is."
" That moneys needed for a good cause too......"
" But.......I get it. love makes us do the wacky......though I'll say there, and as you know theres a certain irony in me saying so, but the feelings seem to be flowing just the one way to my eyes."
" You've stated to me your feelings and needs regarding this fine fellow and I for one would like to hear HIS sincere pledge of troth to such a lovely, fierce, fetching young woman as yourself."
Persuasion- 15
Prestidigitation- A Faint Series of Cat Chirrups down among the shadows of the street- Nature/Animal Handling- 25
While Meredith speaks softly to Marliza on the stairway, Erudisia blinks tiredly, mind catching up with the situation and addresses the were-rat on the rooftop.
“I’m sorry, have we met? Are you one of Korvala’s family, unaware of how we’ve aided you? I’m afraid you really are quite out of the loop, young man.”
(Erudisia isn’t really trying to convince him that they’re all on the same side. I think she’s just trying to annoy him, because he is so thoroughly frustrating, and she has met men like him before).
If the potion bottle clinks to stop anywhere in her vicinity, Erudisia will move to pick it up and taste any remaining droplets quickly in the hope of identifying what the potion was.
A number of rats, at the edge of Bell’s light spell, crouch defensively and scatter at the sound of Meredith’s illusory cat chirrups… but hundreds of the sewer denizens remain.
Erudisia, taking a quick sniff of the empty vial, thinks it held a potion of magic resistance, allowing advantage on saving throws.
To Erudisia’s baiting (CHA save: 18), the wererat merely smiles. “Tut, tut, Milady, I’d say yer memory stretches back far longer than the half-tenday what’s passed since we first met.”
To Meredith’s challenge, the wererat offers Marliza a few words of compelling gaslighting and adoration (Mushika Deception: 16 / Marliza Insight: 15). “She is lovely! And fierce, and fetching! And you hardly know the half of it. You could never know the fierceness of love between were-folk! Right-io, ye might spare a how-do-you-do during the daylight hours, but come night when you’re by yourselves, we know what you say, don’t we luv? You say we’re diseased or cursed! Unwanted! Ye say our words aren’t but empty air. Ye’ve even convinced some werefolk of their own accursedness, and theyn’t listen to the smartest among ‘em! My cherished fierce beauty’s words fall on deaf ears! Come now pet, I’ve missed you and want only to hold you in my arms.”
(The above rolls will hold. We have found that the wererat is immune to further attempts to persuade/manipulate during this encounter. Any further attempts will automatically fail. He remains hidden on the rooftop, not in plain sight.)
Marliza is plainly torn, smiling with colored cheeks at the wererat’s last statement and stepping lightly halfway up the staircase to him. She seems to be losing hope in whatever her reasons were for asking you to come with her and instead, she is falling prey to the wererat’s wiles.
"Maybe just 'The Librarians'... and when we move on, new scholars can step in to continue the tradition (mythos)?"
Bell looks about the room, "Are WE safe enough without Little One along? He IS an imposing figure, after all."
“He is quite recognisable,” says Erudisia, “and he struggles to fit into Marliza’s dwelling. Also, I’d be partial to the Shield Heroines. Or perhaps Scholars and the City, though I’m not sure why. I can imagine fans saying ‘I’m a Bell’, or ‘you’re definitely a Meredith’ when they compare themselves to us.”
Little One’s face looks like a mix between a spilled bottle of purple ink and a mountain village after a seismic event, not great in other words, and indicates that he would be glad to relax.
You have, earlier in the morning, already changed back into your own clothing, having left the outfits you wore to the casino at the old warehouse before returning to “The Brine Widow.”
You prepare now to return to the Amberdune pack’s home.
Marliza pays the messenger lad a silver piece or two and the teenager agrees to carry the crate there. He hefts it onto a shoulder. He’s not particularly muscular, but he’s sturdy and obviously accustomed to such labor.
As you make your way through the busying streets of Baldur’s Gate made surreal by the morning fog, Marliza, in her black veil and long woolen robe, still seems off, somehow.
The messenger lad dares to smile at her as you walk and, while you might have expected her to return nothing more than a venomous glare, she simply ignores him, sullen. She engages Meredith in conversation quietly.
“You and… Bell. The way you look at her. It’s kind of obvious that… there’s something between you.” She continues in a whisper, her dark eyes scanning the bard’s for her response.
“Do you love her?”
DM for Candlekeep Mysteries // Dev Hornd in Curious Critters // Eclipse Faraway in Gallows Dancer
Merediths head is immediately on a swivel trying to make sure no one else had overheard.
Her voice an urgent whisper she pulled Marliza close as they walked.
" No! Well...yes....of course I do! How could I not Love Her? She's so.....I mean she's perfect. Just look at her!"
" No! Don't look!"
" Please don't say anything. Please! She's.....out of.....reach...she doesn't think of me that way....she won't......it will wreck everything if she knows!"
" Please! .......please......."
She pushed everything down deep inside before she exploded.
" Please, Marliza. Promise you won't."
“I promise,” Marliza replies right away. “If the promise of… if my promise means anything. I won’t tell, no matter what happens.” Her voice is small but firm. “I just… since you know what it’s like to be in love. Because,” she continues, looking around just as Meredith had done, to ensure no one else hears her whispering. “Because I love someone too. And he loves me.” She smiles, sadly. “It’s just so hard sometimes, my family? You heard them, they don’t take my ideas seriously. But… He says I’m beautiful and really smart… and he’s clever and… we have a plan to get married… and set up our own shop. Some day…”
You continue walking, through the gate and — Marliza shows her pass — into the Upper City with its grand arches and columns disappearing into the fog which hangs around you. You walk past The Wide. The huge plaza is almost silent, but you hear workmen setting up several stalls and more merchants arriving unpacking their wares and produce from carts and beasts of burden. Then out of the Black Gate you proceed once again and into the Outer City. The young jackalwere has stopped speaking and seems mollified, having returned to sullen silence.
Quiet now pervades, a vacant silence in the mist, and your footsteps crunch loudly, seemingly, on the gravel road as you go. This is soon answered by rustling through the garbage crusting the edges of the buildings, which seem to push closer to you, left and right.
DM for Candlekeep Mysteries // Dev Hornd in Curious Critters // Eclipse Faraway in Gallows Dancer
All this time, Bell has been chattering away to the messenger lad that is carrying the chest on his shoulder. "Have you always lived in Baldur's Gate? Is it always so busy? Isn't that chest getting heavy?"
The lad sometimes wonders if Bell ever takes time to breathe before another stream of questions bubbles forth.
"Have you ever been to that casino outside of town? I have heard the food and drink is very nice there. Do you gamble? They supposedly can turn just about anything into some kind of game to play and bet on." She goes on to talk about Candlekeep and the wonders of the library there.
(( totally oblivious to what Marliza and Meredith are whispering about... ))
{game log} Perception: Nat 20 +1 = 21 (( OOC: did NOT expect that kind of roll !!! ))
Suddenly, in front of Meredith and Marliza - a shower of sparks appears and drifts slowly to the ground in front of them.
Prestidigitation
The hope being to gain their attention without having to break the travel or shouted yells to 'be aware'.
Erudisia brings up the rear. Though the light tread of a trained dancer is still clear, her eyes are heavy and she seems focused only on taking one step after another, still exhausted after the long day’s efforts.
"Yeah, I've lived here my entire life," the lad answers. "And no, Lady, it's sometimes busier yet, why, you should see the crowds in Highharvestide, and we just had the Breaking, when the harbor re-opened after winter. I ate more candy swirls and the crowd was bigger than anything you've ever seen, Lady."
"No, I'm used to the weight," he answers, shifting the box to his other shoulder. "Why, it's the barrels of ale my pop makes me help carry, those get heavy after unloading too many of em."
He listens with interest to Bell's description of the casino, eyes wide. "No, Lady, I've never... why, a penny earned is a penny saved my pop says, and I couldn't. I mean, just to gamble it after all the effort of gaining it?," he laughs uneasily.
DM for Candlekeep Mysteries // Dev Hornd in Curious Critters // Eclipse Faraway in Gallows Dancer
Bell, while talking with the lad, called Petey by the way, has felt the small hairs on her arms crawling just slightly from the moment the group entered the Outer City. Well, it made sense that they were being watched, there were many windows and curious hidden eyes noting your passage to be sure. Yet, there was nothing particular to see until now. Over the last few seconds, Bell noted a particular shape on the rooftops in the mist, keeping pace with the group. And almost unnoticeable, like a mysterious echo, a thin strand of melody, high pitched like a ringing in the ears, subtle and arcane, emanates from that shifting shadow.
The rats, scurrying just out of view along the edge of the narrow street under the detritus of refuse, aren't involved in their usual behavior, poking through garbage for food, Bell realizes. They all seem to be united, moving almost like an organized band, moving to surround your party.
Everyone stops, we’ll say, when Bell’s sparks ignite. Because Bell critted her Perception and alerted the group, you may each take one free action before whatever was just about to happen, happens…
(You can all receive the benefits of a Short Rest over the course of the early morning hours prior to departing from The Brine Widow. Also, you have had time to attune your new magic item.)
DM for Candlekeep Mysteries // Dev Hornd in Curious Critters // Eclipse Faraway in Gallows Dancer
Erudisia points at the Shadowy figure once Bell points it out. She has had enough of intrigue and peril for quite one journey.
“Come down here right now and explain what you’re doing and why” she says. (Wis save 13)
(Erudisia’s spell does not have the desired effect, the reason for which I will clarify later. Bell and Meredith?)
DM for Candlekeep Mysteries // Dev Hornd in Curious Critters // Eclipse Faraway in Gallows Dancer
(How Mysterious).
Meredith pulled up short at the sparkles and quickly looked around for the source, she immediately noted the rats............rats...........and sighed, " Our odorous friend is back?"
" Marliza, might need your teeth shortly."
She shifted back slightly towards the others and reached out with her gifts to try and bring a little more illumination....
( Prestidigitation- Fireplay to light any candles, lanterns, campfires......bundles of trash that look like they could be a campfire? )
Bell mutters under her breath about pesky rats and attacks in the dark. She reaches into her pouch and affixes her crystal to her staff as she speaks a well used arcane phrase to the rock.
Light
"No sense thrashing about in the dark," she says as she steps in front of Petey to protectively shield him.
(( since it is coming... Initiative: Nat 20 + 2 = 22 !!!!!! ))
( Inititiative for meredith if needed- 9)
Initiative (Disadvantage) for Erudisia: 6
Smoke begins to sputter from a damp, crumpled newspaper lying in the road ahead of you (Meredith’s Prestidigitation), and then Bell’s crystal flashes to life and a warm arcane luminescence suffuses the street, revealing, atop gates and window sills and curls of refuse, and on the street itself all around, hundreds of rats standing on their hind legs and staring at you, eyes gleaming. Higher up, at the top of a creaky stairway leading to a shanty built atop one of the second floor roofs, two beady eyes pierce the fog…
“Why… it’s you, Milady,” comes a familiar voice from the rooftop. You see a familiar face, just for a moment, come into focus. The long-nosed rat face of the round-eared rat head of the wererat from the road south of Baldur’s Gate.
“All three of you Ladies, ain’t it? And without yer charmin’ pal neither? Why this’ll be more… intimate, won’t it? Only this time…” an empty potion vial clinks dryly as it falls down the steps. “This time all those spells’ll do ya naught against me, hehe!”
“All right-i-o,” the voice continues, humorlessly, “Let’s all stay calm. No need for anyone to get hurt, eh? Come on up here my pretty, you’ve done well for us, luv!”
There is a silence, and then Marliza replies.
“Mushika,” Marliza says, “I… I…”
“What’s wrong buttercup, rat got yer tongue?,” the wererat says.
“Do we, we don’t really need to… this time… do we?,” Marliza pleads.
“Why nonsense, Marliza, luv. Our plan was perfect, and perfect it remains, as long as we follow the path we laid out. Now get your pretty little behind up here. Now, Marliza!”
The teenager stands stock still for a long moment, then turns to Petey and gently takes the chest from him, and carries it like a great weight, to the stairway and ascends the first few steps. She stops, then turns, her expression wide-eyed and conflicted as she glances around to the three of you. Her gaze lands on Meredith, pleading for understanding.
“Now… you Ladies just lay down your jewels and rods and whatnot and you’re free to go!,” the wererat is saying.
(We’re not in initiative yet, but initiative will be trigger by a statement of intent to attack. When that happens, we enter initiative with Bell first, followed by the wererat before Erudisia or Meredith.)
DM for Candlekeep Mysteries // Dev Hornd in Curious Critters // Eclipse Faraway in Gallows Dancer
Meredith looks up then down then at Marliza then she smiles, " Oh, dear. Him? I've got to say Marliza you could do a lot better.......I mean theres Petey over there already twice the man that beaky is."
" That moneys needed for a good cause too......"
" But.......I get it. love makes us do the wacky......though I'll say there, and as you know theres a certain irony in me saying so, but the feelings seem to be flowing just the one way to my eyes."
" You've stated to me your feelings and needs regarding this fine fellow and I for one would like to hear HIS sincere pledge of troth to such a lovely, fierce, fetching young woman as yourself."
Persuasion- 15
Prestidigitation- A Faint Series of Cat Chirrups down among the shadows of the street- Nature/Animal Handling- 25
While Meredith speaks softly to Marliza on the stairway, Erudisia blinks tiredly, mind catching up with the situation and addresses the were-rat on the rooftop.
“I’m sorry, have we met? Are you one of Korvala’s family, unaware of how we’ve aided you? I’m afraid you really are quite out of the loop, young man.”
(Erudisia isn’t really trying to convince him that they’re all on the same side. I think she’s just trying to annoy him, because he is so thoroughly frustrating, and she has met men like him before).
If the potion bottle clinks to stop anywhere in her vicinity, Erudisia will move to pick it up and taste any remaining droplets quickly in the hope of identifying what the potion was.
A number of rats, at the edge of Bell’s light spell, crouch defensively and scatter at the sound of Meredith’s illusory cat chirrups… but hundreds of the sewer denizens remain.
Erudisia, taking a quick sniff of the empty vial, thinks it held a potion of magic resistance, allowing advantage on saving throws.
To Erudisia’s baiting (CHA save: 18), the wererat merely smiles. “Tut, tut, Milady, I’d say yer memory stretches back far longer than the half-tenday what’s passed since we first met.”
To Meredith’s challenge, the wererat offers Marliza a few words of compelling gaslighting and adoration (Mushika Deception: 16 / Marliza Insight: 15). “She is lovely! And fierce, and fetching! And you hardly know the half of it. You could never know the fierceness of love between were-folk! Right-io, ye might spare a how-do-you-do during the daylight hours, but come night when you’re by yourselves, we know what you say, don’t we luv? You say we’re diseased or cursed! Unwanted! Ye say our words aren’t but empty air. Ye’ve even convinced some werefolk of their own accursedness, and theyn’t listen to the smartest among ‘em! My cherished fierce beauty’s words fall on deaf ears! Come now pet, I’ve missed you and want only to hold you in my arms.”
(The above rolls will hold. We have found that the wererat is immune to further attempts to persuade/manipulate during this encounter. Any further attempts will automatically fail. He remains hidden on the rooftop, not in plain sight.)
Marliza is plainly torn, smiling with colored cheeks at the wererat’s last statement and stepping lightly halfway up the staircase to him. She seems to be losing hope in whatever her reasons were for asking you to come with her and instead, she is falling prey to the wererat’s wiles.
DM for Candlekeep Mysteries // Dev Hornd in Curious Critters // Eclipse Faraway in Gallows Dancer