The office is frugal-bordering-on-austere, divided into two parts by a small writing desk attached to a bookstand. Atop the desk, a quill and a bottle of ink sit next to a leather-bound ledger. A small clock ticks quietly. You are motioned to sit on several wooden chairs which face the desk, while Korvala leans back against the desk’s edge.
“Sit here, pet,” she directs Erudisia, to the seat closest to her.
The walls are lined on two sides with simple bookshelves made of stacked bricks and wooden planks. A pair of swords in old scabbards decorated in Amnian folk-style hang on the wall behind the desk, attracting your attention. They seem like very fine blades, and one feels tempted to draw them from their holders to see whatever etchings might be engraved or fired into the steel.
When Erudisia asks for tea, Korvala smiles, “Of course, my dear,” and, exchanges a glance with the pony-tailed girl, who seems unwilling to go, and who in turn pivots her eyes to the wavy-haired, bespectacled man called Inbar, passing the buck. Chiding her with a look, and playfully snapping his teeth at her, Inbar turns silently and leaves. You hear him open the door in the hallway behind you. The smell of pets comes wafting in, and you hear what sounds like a dog grooming itself. Words are exchanged, someone exits that room and walks away into the first room where you hear them put on a kettle, stoking the fire. The bespectacled man returns to the office to stand next to the pony-tailed girl.
While Inbar is away, Korvala is beaming to the girl. “Marliza, it is your good fortune today to meet my dear friend. She is a scholar and serves a powerful patron, exactly as we do, and is visiting from Candlekeep. Have you not heard of it? Perhaps she will tell you later. For now, business.”
The girl’s quick eyes seem to notice the absence of a full introduction, but Erudisia picks up from Korvala, matching her rhythm to perfectly buoy the illusion of a bond of friendship between herself and the woman. Bell and Meredith have never heard her lie so expertly before. So perfectly, indeed, that soon the girl takes Korvala’s charm-wrought words at face value, and the girl’s lip curls in an appreciative smile at the older woman’s praises for their guest.
Meredith, meanwhile, finds herself latching onto the images depicted in the tapestry...
If it were not so old it would be easier to… wait! The Calimshite knows the depicted legend… the story of the five sisters of the desert. Lamias, powerful beings worshipped by canines and half-canines and were-jackals. Evil to the core, delighting in cruelty and deception. They brought princes to ruin, to suicide, for the lamia’s lies untethered the royal scions from kingdom and kin and left them to suffer alone in the hollow caverns of their broken hearts.
But… the tapestry depicts the sixth sister. The Empty One... empty of cruelty. In recent memory, the story goes, if it is to be believed, the other five banded against the Empty One and drove her out of the desert to distant lands.
The bespectacled man, Inbar, has returned, and Erudisia restates the questions and allegiances of the Scholar’s Shield. Korvala now seems to hear the facts in a much more open manner, although her response, so far, remains to be heard.
The clock has advanced fifteen minutes by the time an old man, barefoot, enters the office, bringing cups of tea for the guests and Korvala. The tall store manager brings her cup to her mouth but rather than tipping it and sipping, her tongue dips into the liquid, testing the flavor, curling, and bringing just a few drops back into her mouth, which she swallows wordlessly. She smiles at the older man, looks at Bell and Meredith, cocking her head as if uncertain why she is looking at them, then her eyes flash in anger to Erudisia, but the moment they fall upon the Moonshae lady, they lose their lustre and gain warmth and depth once again. The spell continues to work perfectly.
“My dear,” she says to Erudisia, “I am so sorry that these things befell your folk. I… I thought the books would have simply been placed on shelves and safely held in place in some dusty collection. Why did they only just arrive at your doors, after all these weeks?”
Meredith smiles at the man and reaches for a cup of tea and drinks it down, she runs her eyes over the other cups then back down at hers and muses, " Oh, look....I have the Empty One....what luck."
She looks to Bell and smiles warmly then turns and gives Marliza a friendly wink before turning towards Korvala and giving a deep and respectful bow.
Three pairs of eyes turn immediately to Meredith following her pronouncement (and gambit), and when she bows, expressions of hopeful confusion bloom but are quickly reined in.
“Your… teacup, you mean?…,” Korvala stutters, shifting from her relaxed position to her feet in shocked surprise.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
DM for Candlekeep Mysteries //Dev Horndin Curious Critters
She smiled warmly, " We are.....perchance all a long way from home. And because of such circumstances we should......change into something a little more comfortable."
She loosened her warm jacket and placed it around her waist with the arms tied over.....then patted Bells hand in reassurance.
" I find forgiveness to be the mark of a strong and confident personality, don't you?"
Erudisia raises an eyebrow as Korvala rises to her feet. “What do you think we have to forgive, or be forgiven for?” She asks Meredith, before she turns to look at Korvala.
“I do not understand, have I or Candlekeep wronged you? Did you know the nature of these books, their danger? From where did you get these things? Do not be afraid to speak candidly, my dear. Lasting harm is not yet done, that I am aware of, at least, and if you are aggrieved I would seek to alleviate you of that weight and ease your mind; when all this office affair is concluded and you reflect upon this day, know, that is my enduring wish.”
Erudisiastands also, and bows her head and takes the long fabric of her day dress in her left hand and dips her knees, knowing how time plays against them all, and what is to come of her actions in less than an hour. “Wyt full curtysey I highte upon my troth as prepor issue an’ dohtor o’Odewright of my fair ffolk mind and top duty to thou. Let us speke to the quick and cut now.”
“Help us understand these books and identify the supplier, for we cannot be sure who else they have sold these hazardous gingwatzim to, nor how many exist.”
“You know we only seek to shield from death those who might mistakenly read them. We are not the Watch. Certainly, we are not villains, either. Please help us, as we would help you should you ever need us.” She stares at the floor. Holding her curtsy. Should this not bear fruit, she thinks, then perhaps it shall be time to leave, and withdraw in good time before her spell runs its course.
Bell looks at Meredith... suddenly so bold. At Erudisia, bowing and making oaths in a musical tongue. Then Korvala and her two acolytes. 'What signal did I miss?' she thought.
Bell feels like she is leaving her body... stress? Magic? Panic? The tea? She takes a deep breath and releases it slowly before speaking.
"Madam Korvala, I hope we have not burned all the good will we wished to share today. As noted with your assistants, we have primarily been students and scholars, not the Watch or the Flaming Fists. We only hope we can find the source of these magicked books to prevent any further injuries or deaths.
As stated before your arrival, we wish to make proper financial arrangements if you can point us to the person who we might speak with. Or if you know of the books or scrolls used, how we might purchase those (or their copies) so Candlekeep can better understand the magics involved and better prepare if bespelled books are brought to their doorstep in the future.
We wish you no ill will. Nor wish to get the Watch of the Flaming Fists involved. We would prefer an amenable - and for you - a profitable conclusion to what was most probably a misunderstanding."
... and that is when Bell runs out of steam and stands wringing her hands.
“You or Candlekeep?...,” Korvala stammers. She quietly listens to Bell’s plea, bolstered as it is by Erudisia’s statements. When Meredith speaks, the bookstore manager shakes her head.
“This is… Why do you…?...,” she trails off, turning away in silence, her gaze in the middle distance, trying to collect her thoughts. It takes a long moment, during which she repeats your statements to herself, testing their weight, until the little clock’s bell rings once, announcing the time. The spell was cast 30 minutes ago.
But the bell’s clarity, however frail, seems to lend resolve to Korvala’s thinking. She nods her head, seeming to arrive at a decision as her eyes find Meredith’s.
“You speak in riddles, friend of my friend. But your riddles touch my heart in unexpected ways.” Following Meredith’s lead, she slowly pulls back her light hood as she speaks to Erudisia.
“Pet, don’t be too surprised. You know me well enough that… I’m sure you must have at least suspected.” She unpins her hijab and lets it fall away as she speaks. “But since we are speaking truth, your friend is right. Let us be comfortable.” She removes the hijab, revealing two triangular, brown-orange dog ears.
“Dearest,” she says, turning to Erudisia, “I had no idea the gingwatzim would arrive to Candlekeep. It is surprising, and unfortunate. And… I am ashamed for the pain my devices have caused your people. I truly am. If my need were not so great and my circumstances so low, I would never have done. But you must try to see things from my perspective. I know you will try, Pet.”
At first bowed by sadness and despair, she inhales, closing her eyes, summoning her strength, and she regains her posture, standing tall and proud with her hands clasped before her, an acolyte in prayer almost.
“We come from Amn, where Amberdune, our temple and home, and the home of our great Patron, rose, proudly facing a wide, hidden beach and the sea. Before it was brought to ruin and our Patron, slain…” She turns to Meredith. “The Empty One, as her fabled sisters called her, is our Patron. She who fled from the desert of Anauroch when the Five Sisters banished her, all the way to the sea. But it was not far enough. For the sisters beguiled and charmed a hero, sent him and his retinue after her. The hero found her and slew her, along with many of our kin.”
Inbar and Marliza, moved by this retelling, form O’s with their lips, turn them upwards, and keen mournfully like wolves to the moon.
“And we fled, up and down the coast, with only a few items from our Patron’s collection. For while the sisters love cruelty, Nidalia loves learning, books and scrolls. I won’t say ‘loved,’ for though she was slain, death in Faerun need not be the final end of life. We saved her body, embalmed it, and we keep her close, until the day she can be Resurrected.
“But though we have found one with the ability to call down life from the heavens and bring Nidalia back, we are unable to meet his price. 3,000 gold…”
“Not that we haven't tried. Trying has been our very lives these past many months. But how, how to earn 3,000 pieces of gold? We aimed first to make our Patron’s interest and habit our vocation, to sell books here in this proud neighborhood of men and earn enough to pay for our hopes to be realized.
“But week after week, the cost of setting up the stall, the cost of food, the cost simply to live, even in this modest home, saps almost everything we earn.
“At Amberdune, I learned from my Patron to… the ritual to call the hungry gingwatzim spirits, which can assume any form one wishes so long as it is not too large. And so… I cast the ritual, and commanded the dark energy to clothe itself as a copy of one of Nidalia’s more precious texts. And lo, it was purchased, and at a cost of 250 gold. How close we seemed to our goal then! But only one other buyer agreed to pay that sum, and so only two have I sold. That they arrived together to Candlekeep of all places… it is a coincidence beyond reason. Yet… it has brought you here, my dear…”
Inbar interjects himself into the conversation impatiently. “It was never a good idea. I will do what you command Korvala, but I will also speak truth. If we do not hurry, Nidalia’s body will degrade and the spell will not work. I told you we should have followed Marliza’s plan. She’s young, but she has the key to enough gold to reach our goal in a single day.”
Meredith released Bell and stepped forward trying to put herself between Erudisia and Korvala.
" Forgive me for speaking out of turn and forgive us for our impertinence......for fear often wins out over courage. Does it not?"
She wracked her brain for anything else she could dredge from half forgotten memories of hours spent buried in old stories and legends....
" Be it too blunt a question......but how long do you have before the resurrection will fail and how close are you to your goal? We can perhaps assist in its completion......despite our failings as guests within your hospitality."
Her eyes flickered to Bell......but she did not speak the words that sat upon her tongue......then to Erudisia......she whispered quickly, " Let me bear this....take Bell and go....you have the ear of important folk and can help them...can you not? It is not a large sum for the merchant pasha of Calimport I doubt it is so for the Lords of Baldurs Gate."
She moved up a little closer and swallowed carefully, her voice calm and clear despite her heart hammering within her ribcage, " And what was Marlizas plan?"
(I know what Erudisia will do, I think, but I’m waiting to hear what is said regarding this risky plan, before she comments on the howling, dog ears and being called Pet, and the Charmed(TM) slayer of their patron. And the possibilities she thought of, per the DMs.
Fair warning, she feels quite awful, she may feel she must drop the concentration on the charm, before an hour. Once she’s made her offer clear. The question is, leave first, or drop the spell in the room so that the regret and situation and any decision Korvala makes is untarnished, and won’t be walked back after it wears off anyway?)
Meredith released Bell and stepped forward trying to put herself between Erudisia and Korvala.
" Forgive me for speaking out of turn and forgive us for our impertinence......for fear often wins out over courage. Does it not?"
She wracked her brain for anything else she could dredge from half forgotten memories of hours spent buried in old stories and legends....
" Be it too blunt a question......but how long do you have before the resurrection will fail and how close are you to your goal? We can perhaps assist in its completion......despite our failings as guests within your hospitality."
Her eyes flickered to Bell......but she did not speak the words that sat upon her tongue......then to Erudisia......she whispered quickly, " Let me bear this....take Bell and go....you have the ear of important folk and can help them...can you not? It is not a large sum for the merchant pasha of Calimport I doubt it is so for the Lords of Baldurs Gate."
She moved up a little closer and swallowed carefully, her voice calm and clear despite her heart hammering within her ribcage, " And what was Marlizas plan?"
“Fear and courage… are they not two faces of the same coin?...,” the Amnian woman with the ears of a dog – a jackal, even – answers.
Inbar answers regarding the length of time. “The spell can be cast up to 100 years following the death. But if the body suffers from rot, the life will not last long. And hers is… deteriorating. We don’t know why. We were told that we have a few months at most.”
“Our savings?,” Korvala repeats. “We are… not close.” She walks around her desk and opens the ledger, turning several pages unenthusiastically. She looks to Inbar and Marliza, sighing, before turning back to Erudisia and then Meredith. She clears her throat and answers, bravely covering despondence. “Since our arrival, we have saved… 200 gold.”
When asked about Marliza's plan, Korvala turns to the girl, urging her to speak.
The girl, late in her teens -- or so you at first thought, now speaks with a confidence that suggests she might be in her 20s, though once you hear her plan, you might think, rather than confident, foolish.
“There’s a casino on the coast a few miles north of here. Where the nobles go to gamble. Thousands of gold change hands every night, and the casino makes that much from its guests every night too. Owned by a selfish old gnome. I know someone who knows their way around. They could get me into the vault with no one knowing. The gamblers are all rich. They’d never miss 3000 gold," she says, not without heat. But her glance shifts uneasily to Erudisia and her temperature lowers. "But she said it needs to be more than just me or it's too risky.”
Her story reminds you of the fabled presence of a Thieve’s Guild in Baldur’s Gate…
Bellshakes her head slowly... "That choice is no choice at all, I fear. You risk your life and perhaps your pack in the hope you can break in and steal enough AND get out again AND hope no one decides 3000 gold IS worth tracking you down. That would be ANOTHER group hunting you?
Versus coming to Candlekeep where your books would be protected; your pack NOT being in danger -- at least from those in Candlekeep - and the healers in Candlekeep might be able to help with the body and the eventual resurrection.
BUT, that is not my decision to make. Rather it is your Lady's to decide. Perhaps we should go out and wait with our companion, Little One, while you discuss your choices?"
Belllooks to her companions to see if they agree or not.
" Bell is correct..", big grin, " on that front....Thieves Guilds, who almost certainly have an interest in said casino, do not appreciate independents muscling in on their territory."
" But there may be a way to collect additional funds......is there a noticeboard or office here in town that announces tasks that require doing......some of those can be surprisingly lucrative....also surprisingly dangerous at times I have heard."
“But,” Inbar interjects as the clock shows 15 minutes to the hour. “It is not your plan. Is it Marliza?”
“No, it isn’t," the girl answers. "It is the plan of… the person I mentioned. But I want in on it. And the casino isn’t run by the Thieves’ Guild. It was built outside of town to avoid the Thieves’ Guild. They were my concern too. I’ve seen what they can do.” She visibly shudders.
“Marliza,” Korvala says, her voice brimming with authority, “thank you. But my dear friend,” she now turns to Erudisia, “...here… has offered to help, not to risk her life.”
“But,” the girl answers, seeming to remember something, glancing respectfully to Korvala but setting her jaw and pressing on, “I do know a place… where there may be a noticeboard or announcements. It is in the Lower City, on the docks. I can lead you there. It's an area of town where... you need to know where you are going.”
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
DM for Candlekeep Mysteries //Dev Horndin Curious Critters
At some point Erudisia has slid glacially back into her seat. She gives now a great sob, her shoulders shaking, as she waves off any who turn to her. By degrees she gets her composure back though her eyes are red and her eyelids puffy.
“Forgive me. Forgive me,” she says to Korvala. “For I have sinned. My offer is true, as is the love you bear toward you patron (would that mine own were so steadfast and worthy), and I think that to steal from a casino — with its own mighty backers, doubtlessly — or quest on dangerous adventures… No. No.”
”You have sold only two of these duplicated dangers, and no harm has yet been done. Come with us to Candlekeep where Seekers are plentiful, where knowledge is broad, where Clerics and Sages of great power live, and show them the originals of which you are care taker, and explain their true owner and their true owner’s disposition. You have seen Little One. And you know my character, angry though it makes you, hated though I might be.”
”Know these words as true, know my heart is on your side. Know my apology is yours and I will accept your wrath. My only explanation is necessity, and now knowing your history and need, I understand I have injured you gravely. Please contemplate this offer with a clear mind, please separate your feelings to me from the worth of this offer, Korvala.”
So saying, she places her focus back beneath her dress, and drops her Charm, and bows her head to wait for what may come.
Korvala Wisdom Save (with Bardic Inspiration from Meredith): 23
The bookstore manager, who you now understand to be the leader of the Amberdune devotees to Nidalia, first shows genuine concern at Erudisia’s admission of guilt, shaking her head and denying any need for apology. Her expression firms, as if she believes that Erudisia – her friend’s – sadness arrives because she, Erudisia, has decided not to help the pack after all. Not that the Amnian woman would have uttered a harsh word or any recrimination were that the case. But as Erudisia continues, Korvala’s expression transforms quickly, from confusion to patient denial, and back to confusion and concern. And then, the Moonshae lady’s head bows in apology and the spell ends at her bidding.
Bell and Meredith watch as Korvala blinks, stunned. Her features transform again, in an even more animated flow as her glance lingers on Erudisia, her eyes widening fearfully and piercing like blades, her mouth snapping shut and nostrils flaring. Horrified fury like a burning hot shield sets itself between her and her emotional captor. Like a broken artificer’s mechanism, a growl low in her chest pierces the quiet of the room, soon joined by Inbar as Mariliza’s eyes dart back and forth in confusion. Korvala stands, backing away from Erudisia and the others, and puts her desk between herself and the three Scholar’s Shieldwomen of Candlekeep. Mere seconds have passed, but in that much time, the tension in the room has exploded, and now, answering the alarmed growl, the old man creeps to the doorway, now in the form of a man with a jackal’s head.
“She charmed me,” Korvala barks to the others of her pack. “She stretched herself over my feelings and beguiled me into believing that I was her friend! I have never seen her before today! She is a stranger!”
In a quick motion, she pulls the two Amnian blades from their scabbards on the wall and brandishes them expertly. “These belonged to the hero who slew our beloved patron! One charmed – just as I was – to do another’s bidding! He fell, and so will anyone else who stands against us!”
But then, just for a moment, her eyes shoot around the room, landing on her pack members one after the next and registering how few they now are… the edges soften, though they flash, sharper than her blades when she drills a stare into Erudisia… but she seems to hear Erudisia’s words about Candlekeep replaying in her memory… and Korvala’s posture visibly softens, though she keeps her blades poised, then points them at you three.
Erudisia whispers to Meredith, leaving as instructed, “Remind her of our lodging’s address, in case she should seek to find us later.”
Once outside with Little One, she will seek to head to the nearest courier’s office and pay for an express which details their findings and the nature of the dilemma to the Keeper, and their presumed solution, before returning to the inn if the others wish.
The office is frugal-bordering-on-austere, divided into two parts by a small writing desk attached to a bookstand. Atop the desk, a quill and a bottle of ink sit next to a leather-bound ledger. A small clock ticks quietly. You are motioned to sit on several wooden chairs which face the desk, while Korvala leans back against the desk’s edge.
“Sit here, pet,” she directs Erudisia, to the seat closest to her.
The walls are lined on two sides with simple bookshelves made of stacked bricks and wooden planks. A pair of swords in old scabbards decorated in Amnian folk-style hang on the wall behind the desk, attracting your attention. They seem like very fine blades, and one feels tempted to draw them from their holders to see whatever etchings might be engraved or fired into the steel.
When Erudisia asks for tea, Korvala smiles, “Of course, my dear,” and, exchanges a glance with the pony-tailed girl, who seems unwilling to go, and who in turn pivots her eyes to the wavy-haired, bespectacled man called Inbar, passing the buck. Chiding her with a look, and playfully snapping his teeth at her, Inbar turns silently and leaves. You hear him open the door in the hallway behind you. The smell of pets comes wafting in, and you hear what sounds like a dog grooming itself. Words are exchanged, someone exits that room and walks away into the first room where you hear them put on a kettle, stoking the fire. The bespectacled man returns to the office to stand next to the pony-tailed girl.
While Inbar is away, Korvala is beaming to the girl. “Marliza, it is your good fortune today to meet my dear friend. She is a scholar and serves a powerful patron, exactly as we do, and is visiting from Candlekeep. Have you not heard of it? Perhaps she will tell you later. For now, business.”
The girl’s quick eyes seem to notice the absence of a full introduction, but Erudisia picks up from Korvala, matching her rhythm to perfectly buoy the illusion of a bond of friendship between herself and the woman. Bell and Meredith have never heard her lie so expertly before. So perfectly, indeed, that soon the girl takes Korvala’s charm-wrought words at face value, and the girl’s lip curls in an appreciative smile at the older woman’s praises for their guest.
Meredith, meanwhile, finds herself latching onto the images depicted in the tapestry...
If it were not so old it would be easier to… wait! The Calimshite knows the depicted legend… the story of the five sisters of the desert. Lamias, powerful beings worshipped by canines and half-canines and were-jackals. Evil to the core, delighting in cruelty and deception. They brought princes to ruin, to suicide, for the lamia’s lies untethered the royal scions from kingdom and kin and left them to suffer alone in the hollow caverns of their broken hearts.
But… the tapestry depicts the sixth sister. The Empty One... empty of cruelty. In recent memory, the story goes, if it is to be believed, the other five banded against the Empty One and drove her out of the desert to distant lands.
The bespectacled man, Inbar, has returned, and Erudisia restates the questions and allegiances of the Scholar’s Shield. Korvala now seems to hear the facts in a much more open manner, although her response, so far, remains to be heard.
The clock has advanced fifteen minutes by the time an old man, barefoot, enters the office, bringing cups of tea for the guests and Korvala. The tall store manager brings her cup to her mouth but rather than tipping it and sipping, her tongue dips into the liquid, testing the flavor, curling, and bringing just a few drops back into her mouth, which she swallows wordlessly. She smiles at the older man, looks at Bell and Meredith, cocking her head as if uncertain why she is looking at them, then her eyes flash in anger to Erudisia, but the moment they fall upon the Moonshae lady, they lose their lustre and gain warmth and depth once again. The spell continues to work perfectly.
“My dear,” she says to Erudisia, “I am so sorry that these things befell your folk. I… I thought the books would have simply been placed on shelves and safely held in place in some dusty collection. Why did they only just arrive at your doors, after all these weeks?”
DM for Candlekeep Mysteries // Dev Hornd in Curious Critters
Meredith smiles at the man and reaches for a cup of tea and drinks it down, she runs her eyes over the other cups then back down at hers and muses, " Oh, look....I have the Empty One....what luck."
She looks to Bell and smiles warmly then turns and gives Marliza a friendly wink before turning towards Korvala and giving a deep and respectful bow.
Three pairs of eyes turn immediately to Meredith following her pronouncement (and gambit), and when she bows, expressions of hopeful confusion bloom but are quickly reined in.
“Your… teacup, you mean?…,” Korvala stutters, shifting from her relaxed position to her feet in shocked surprise.
DM for Candlekeep Mysteries // Dev Hornd in Curious Critters
" Perhaps."
She smiled warmly, " We are.....perchance all a long way from home. And because of such circumstances we should......change into something a little more comfortable."
She loosened her warm jacket and placed it around her waist with the arms tied over.....then patted Bells hand in reassurance.
" I find forgiveness to be the mark of a strong and confident personality, don't you?"
Persuasion- 20
Bardic Inspiration- Korvala -1d6.
Persuasion- 18
Erudisia raises an eyebrow as Korvala rises to her feet. “What do you think we have to forgive, or be forgiven for?” She asks Meredith, before she turns to look at Korvala.
“I do not understand, have I or Candlekeep wronged you? Did you know the nature of these books, their danger? From where did you get these things? Do not be afraid to speak candidly, my dear. Lasting harm is not yet done, that I am aware of, at least, and if you are aggrieved I would seek to alleviate you of that weight and ease your mind; when all this office affair is concluded and you reflect upon this day, know, that is my enduring wish.”
Erudisia stands also, and bows her head and takes the long fabric of her day dress in her left hand and dips her knees, knowing how time plays against them all, and what is to come of her actions in less than an hour. “Wyt full curtysey I highte upon my troth as prepor issue an’ dohtor o’Odewright of my fair ffolk mind and top duty to thou. Let us speke to the quick and cut now.”
“Help us understand these books and identify the supplier, for we cannot be sure who else they have sold these hazardous gingwatzim to, nor how many exist.”
“You know we only seek to shield from death those who might mistakenly read them. We are not the Watch. Certainly, we are not villains, either. Please help us, as we would help you should you ever need us.” She stares at the floor. Holding her curtsy. Should this not bear fruit, she thinks, then perhaps it shall be time to leave, and withdraw in good time before her spell runs its course.
Bell looks at Meredith... suddenly so bold. At Erudisia, bowing and making oaths in a musical tongue. Then Korvala and her two acolytes. 'What signal did I miss?' she thought.
{game log} Persuasion Check: 15
Bell feels like she is leaving her body... stress? Magic? Panic? The tea? She takes a deep breath and releases it slowly before speaking.
"Madam Korvala, I hope we have not burned all the good will we wished to share today. As noted with your assistants, we have primarily been students and scholars, not the Watch or the Flaming Fists. We only hope we can find the source of these magicked books to prevent any further injuries or deaths.
As stated before your arrival, we wish to make proper financial arrangements if you can point us to the person who we might speak with. Or if you know of the books or scrolls used, how we might purchase those (or their copies) so Candlekeep can better understand the magics involved and better prepare if bespelled books are brought to their doorstep in the future.
We wish you no ill will. Nor wish to get the Watch of the Flaming Fists involved. We would prefer an amenable - and for you - a profitable conclusion to what was most probably a misunderstanding."
... and that is when Bell runs out of steam and stands wringing her hands.
“You or Candlekeep?...,” Korvala stammers. She quietly listens to Bell’s plea, bolstered as it is by Erudisia’s statements. When Meredith speaks, the bookstore manager shakes her head.
“This is… Why do you…?...,” she trails off, turning away in silence, her gaze in the middle distance, trying to collect her thoughts. It takes a long moment, during which she repeats your statements to herself, testing their weight, until the little clock’s bell rings once, announcing the time. The spell was cast 30 minutes ago.
But the bell’s clarity, however frail, seems to lend resolve to Korvala’s thinking. She nods her head, seeming to arrive at a decision as her eyes find Meredith’s.
“You speak in riddles, friend of my friend. But your riddles touch my heart in unexpected ways.” Following Meredith’s lead, she slowly pulls back her light hood as she speaks to Erudisia.
“Pet, don’t be too surprised. You know me well enough that… I’m sure you must have at least suspected.” She unpins her hijab and lets it fall away as she speaks. “But since we are speaking truth, your friend is right. Let us be comfortable.” She removes the hijab, revealing two triangular, brown-orange dog ears.
“Dearest,” she says, turning to Erudisia, “I had no idea the gingwatzim would arrive to Candlekeep. It is surprising, and unfortunate. And… I am ashamed for the pain my devices have caused your people. I truly am. If my need were not so great and my circumstances so low, I would never have done. But you must try to see things from my perspective. I know you will try, Pet.”
At first bowed by sadness and despair, she inhales, closing her eyes, summoning her strength, and she regains her posture, standing tall and proud with her hands clasped before her, an acolyte in prayer almost.
“We come from Amn, where Amberdune, our temple and home, and the home of our great Patron, rose, proudly facing a wide, hidden beach and the sea. Before it was brought to ruin and our Patron, slain…” She turns to Meredith. “The Empty One, as her fabled sisters called her, is our Patron. She who fled from the desert of Anauroch when the Five Sisters banished her, all the way to the sea. But it was not far enough. For the sisters beguiled and charmed a hero, sent him and his retinue after her. The hero found her and slew her, along with many of our kin.”
Inbar and Marliza, moved by this retelling, form O’s with their lips, turn them upwards, and keen mournfully like wolves to the moon.
“And we fled, up and down the coast, with only a few items from our Patron’s collection. For while the sisters love cruelty, Nidalia loves learning, books and scrolls. I won’t say ‘loved,’ for though she was slain, death in Faerun need not be the final end of life. We saved her body, embalmed it, and we keep her close, until the day she can be Resurrected.
“But though we have found one with the ability to call down life from the heavens and bring Nidalia back, we are unable to meet his price. 3,000 gold…”
“Not that we haven't tried. Trying has been our very lives these past many months. But how, how to earn 3,000 pieces of gold? We aimed first to make our Patron’s interest and habit our vocation, to sell books here in this proud neighborhood of men and earn enough to pay for our hopes to be realized.
“But week after week, the cost of setting up the stall, the cost of food, the cost simply to live, even in this modest home, saps almost everything we earn.
“At Amberdune, I learned from my Patron to… the ritual to call the hungry gingwatzim spirits, which can assume any form one wishes so long as it is not too large. And so… I cast the ritual, and commanded the dark energy to clothe itself as a copy of one of Nidalia’s more precious texts. And lo, it was purchased, and at a cost of 250 gold. How close we seemed to our goal then! But only one other buyer agreed to pay that sum, and so only two have I sold. That they arrived together to Candlekeep of all places… it is a coincidence beyond reason. Yet… it has brought you here, my dear…”
Inbar interjects himself into the conversation impatiently. “It was never a good idea. I will do what you command Korvala, but I will also speak truth. If we do not hurry, Nidalia’s body will degrade and the spell will not work. I told you we should have followed Marliza’s plan. She’s young, but she has the key to enough gold to reach our goal in a single day.”
DM for Candlekeep Mysteries // Dev Hornd in Curious Critters
Meredith released Bell and stepped forward trying to put herself between Erudisia and Korvala.
" Forgive me for speaking out of turn and forgive us for our impertinence......for fear often wins out over courage. Does it not?"
She wracked her brain for anything else she could dredge from half forgotten memories of hours spent buried in old stories and legends....
" Be it too blunt a question......but how long do you have before the resurrection will fail and how close are you to your goal? We can perhaps assist in its completion......despite our failings as guests within your hospitality."
Her eyes flickered to Bell......but she did not speak the words that sat upon her tongue......then to Erudisia......she whispered quickly, " Let me bear this....take Bell and go....you have the ear of important folk and can help them...can you not? It is not a large sum for the merchant pasha of Calimport I doubt it is so for the Lords of Baldurs Gate."
She moved up a little closer and swallowed carefully, her voice calm and clear despite her heart hammering within her ribcage, " And what was Marlizas plan?"
(I know what Erudisia will do, I think, but I’m waiting to hear what is said regarding this risky plan, before she comments on the howling, dog ears and being called Pet, and the Charmed(TM) slayer of their patron. And the possibilities she thought of, per the DMs.
Fair warning, she feels quite awful, she may feel she must drop the concentration on the charm, before an hour. Once she’s made her offer clear. The question is, leave first, or drop the spell in the room so that the regret and situation and any decision Korvala makes is untarnished, and won’t be walked back after it wears off anyway?)
“Fear and courage… are they not two faces of the same coin?...,” the Amnian woman with the ears of a dog – a jackal, even – answers.
Inbar answers regarding the length of time. “The spell can be cast up to 100 years following the death. But if the body suffers from rot, the life will not last long. And hers is… deteriorating. We don’t know why. We were told that we have a few months at most.”
“Our savings?,” Korvala repeats. “We are… not close.” She walks around her desk and opens the ledger, turning several pages unenthusiastically. She looks to Inbar and Marliza, sighing, before turning back to Erudisia and then Meredith. She clears her throat and answers, bravely covering despondence. “Since our arrival, we have saved… 200 gold.”
When asked about Marliza's plan, Korvala turns to the girl, urging her to speak.
The girl, late in her teens -- or so you at first thought, now speaks with a confidence that suggests she might be in her 20s, though once you hear her plan, you might think, rather than confident, foolish.
“There’s a casino on the coast a few miles north of here. Where the nobles go to gamble. Thousands of gold change hands every night, and the casino makes that much from its guests every night too. Owned by a selfish old gnome. I know someone who knows their way around. They could get me into the vault with no one knowing. The gamblers are all rich. They’d never miss 3000 gold," she says, not without heat. But her glance shifts uneasily to Erudisia and her temperature lowers. "But she said it needs to be more than just me or it's too risky.”
Her story reminds you of the fabled presence of a Thieve’s Guild in Baldur’s Gate…
DM for Candlekeep Mysteries // Dev Hornd in Curious Critters
Bell shakes her head slowly... "That choice is no choice at all, I fear. You risk your life and perhaps your pack in the hope you can break in and steal enough AND get out again AND hope no one decides 3000 gold IS worth tracking you down. That would be ANOTHER group hunting you?
Versus coming to Candlekeep where your books would be protected; your pack NOT being in danger -- at least from those in Candlekeep - and the healers in Candlekeep might be able to help with the body and the eventual resurrection.
BUT, that is not my decision to make. Rather it is your Lady's to decide. Perhaps we should go out and wait with our companion, Little One, while you discuss your choices?"
Bell looks to her companions to see if they agree or not.
{game log} Persuasion: 17
" Bell is correct..", big grin, " on that front....Thieves Guilds, who almost certainly have an interest in said casino, do not appreciate independents muscling in on their territory."
" But there may be a way to collect additional funds......is there a noticeboard or office here in town that announces tasks that require doing......some of those can be surprisingly lucrative....also surprisingly dangerous at times I have heard."
“But,” Inbar interjects as the clock shows 15 minutes to the hour. “It is not your plan. Is it Marliza?”
“No, it isn’t," the girl answers. "It is the plan of… the person I mentioned. But I want in on it. And the casino isn’t run by the Thieves’ Guild. It was built outside of town to avoid the Thieves’ Guild. They were my concern too. I’ve seen what they can do.” She visibly shudders.
“Marliza,” Korvala says, her voice brimming with authority, “thank you. But my dear friend,” she now turns to Erudisia, “...here… has offered to help, not to risk her life.”
“But,” the girl answers, seeming to remember something, glancing respectfully to Korvala but setting her jaw and pressing on, “I do know a place… where there may be a noticeboard or announcements. It is in the Lower City, on the docks. I can lead you there. It's an area of town where... you need to know where you are going.”
DM for Candlekeep Mysteries // Dev Hornd in Curious Critters
At some point Erudisia has slid glacially back into her seat. She gives now a great sob, her shoulders shaking, as she waves off any who turn to her. By degrees she gets her composure back though her eyes are red and her eyelids puffy.
“Forgive me. Forgive me,” she says to Korvala. “For I have sinned. My offer is true, as is the love you bear toward you patron (would that mine own were so steadfast and worthy), and I think that to steal from a casino — with its own mighty backers, doubtlessly — or quest on dangerous adventures… No. No.”
”You have sold only two of these duplicated dangers, and no harm has yet been done. Come with us to Candlekeep where Seekers are plentiful, where knowledge is broad, where Clerics and Sages of great power live, and show them the originals of which you are care taker, and explain their true owner and their true owner’s disposition. You have seen Little One. And you know my character, angry though it makes you, hated though I might be.”
”Know these words as true, know my heart is on your side. Know my apology is yours and I will accept your wrath. My only explanation is necessity, and now knowing your history and need, I understand I have injured you gravely. Please contemplate this offer with a clear mind, please separate your feelings to me from the worth of this offer, Korvala.”
So saying, she places her focus back beneath her dress, and drops her Charm, and bows her head to wait for what may come.
Korvala’s Justified Outrage: 18
DM for Candlekeep Mysteries // Dev Hornd in Curious Critters
Korvala Wisdom Save (with Bardic Inspiration from Meredith): 23
The bookstore manager, who you now understand to be the leader of the Amberdune devotees to Nidalia, first shows genuine concern at Erudisia’s admission of guilt, shaking her head and denying any need for apology. Her expression firms, as if she believes that Erudisia – her friend’s – sadness arrives because she, Erudisia, has decided not to help the pack after all. Not that the Amnian woman would have uttered a harsh word or any recrimination were that the case. But as Erudisia continues, Korvala’s expression transforms quickly, from confusion to patient denial, and back to confusion and concern. And then, the Moonshae lady’s head bows in apology and the spell ends at her bidding.
Bell and Meredith watch as Korvala blinks, stunned. Her features transform again, in an even more animated flow as her glance lingers on Erudisia, her eyes widening fearfully and piercing like blades, her mouth snapping shut and nostrils flaring. Horrified fury like a burning hot shield sets itself between her and her emotional captor. Like a broken artificer’s mechanism, a growl low in her chest pierces the quiet of the room, soon joined by Inbar as Mariliza’s eyes dart back and forth in confusion. Korvala stands, backing away from Erudisia and the others, and puts her desk between herself and the three Scholar’s Shieldwomen of Candlekeep. Mere seconds have passed, but in that much time, the tension in the room has exploded, and now, answering the alarmed growl, the old man creeps to the doorway, now in the form of a man with a jackal’s head.
“She charmed me,” Korvala barks to the others of her pack. “She stretched herself over my feelings and beguiled me into believing that I was her friend! I have never seen her before today! She is a stranger!”
In a quick motion, she pulls the two Amnian blades from their scabbards on the wall and brandishes them expertly. “These belonged to the hero who slew our beloved patron! One charmed – just as I was – to do another’s bidding! He fell, and so will anyone else who stands against us!”
But then, just for a moment, her eyes shoot around the room, landing on her pack members one after the next and registering how few they now are… the edges soften, though they flash, sharper than her blades when she drills a stare into Erudisia… but she seems to hear Erudisia’s words about Candlekeep replaying in her memory… and Korvala’s posture visibly softens, though she keeps her blades poised, then points them at you three.
“GET. OUT,” she demands.
DM for Candlekeep Mysteries // Dev Hornd in Curious Critters
Meredith bowed low, " As you wish. Understand now the offense I begged forgiveness for, in not malice but fear was the error made."
" We go, our offer remains."
Meredith tucked Bell behind her as she walked slowly backwards out of the room.
Persuasion- 15
Erudisia whispers to Meredith, leaving as instructed, “Remind her of our lodging’s address, in case she should seek to find us later.”
Once outside with Little One, she will seek to head to the nearest courier’s office and pay for an express which details their findings and the nature of the dilemma to the Keeper, and their presumed solution, before returning to the inn if the others wish.