Abishai's Dragons of Icespire Peak

"You are clearly mistaken milady, I don't do...that." The young dark-haired man says, seeming quite annoyed over being caught in a mere moment of vulnerability. He couldn't afford that, not yet. And he couldn't wait to have these tremendously obnoxious wings disappear. "As for your prejudice against me I can only agree, but it is a common misconception that merchants are serving the self interest of amassing wealth for it's own sake. Good commerce benefits everyone involved and helps building a prosperous future. And thank you for the offer of wearing that hat but I feel I look quite ridiculous-looking enough with these things on my back." He says with a scoff, giving the silly-looking cone-shaped hat a contemptful glare. He didn't view himself as vain but even he had his limits, and at least the stylish bard would hopefully agree that a hat like that was in itself a curse upon style.

Meira,

Prior to Dabbledob leaving, he responds to your assertion that it may be more dangerous to have a mobile SMADEK, "Hmm... good point. Maybe I'll install a self-destruct sequence to keep the SMADEK from falling into the wrong hands, or a biometric facial recognition regulator to ensure only authorized personnel are allowed to operate it. Or maybe have it run on a fuel source only found in Gnomegarde. I'm glad I thought of it!" He runs off to his task.

Korboz takes over the discussion as Dabbledob leaves, expressing his interest in Mountain's Toe Gold Mine.

 Alisande,

Korboz graciously walks you through the cliffnotes annotating the gnomish spellbook, and helps you transcribe the spells into your own book for future use.

Rasziel,

Your butterfly wings poof out of existence in a cloud of pink smoke while Alisande transcribes the first of the two spells into her spellbook.

Gareth,

The gnomes nod at you as you express your appreciation and Korboz says, "We have you to thank for giving us our home back."

Zephyros,

Korboz says to you, "Okay, we'll put together a delivery of wine and some of our gnomish mining gear and deliver it to Mountain's Toe as soon as we are able."

Later, Felagi reports all is quiet outside of Gnomengarde and returns to your shoulder, rubbing his head against yours in greeting after reuniting. You spend some time with Rasziel, mending his torn garment. It's as if the wings never existed in the first place after you're done. During your patrol of Gnomengarde, you see various gnomes cleaning up the acidic messes created by the monster deaths and others beginning the process of baking green mushroom bread and cleaning up the destroyed pantry. Fibblestib is disassembling the gnomish turnstiles while Dabbledob is fuming over the destruction of one of the barrel crabs.

Everyone,

The afternoon grows late as Alisande finishes copying spells into her spellbook. The gnomes treat you all to some warm, fresh-baked mushroom bread and mushroom wine, and once again express their appreciation for having their home back to normal. Is there anything else you would like to do before leaving Gnomengarde? 

Meira seems pleased by Dabbledob's  new ideas to perhaps make the device 'safer'. As nobody seems to have indicated interest in the Pole of Collapsing, she grabs that, inspecting how to use it.  While others copy spells or wander about, she goes over to chat with Lyra. "Have a nice conversation with the gnomes while we were on our little walk about the place?" she asks in a bit of a joking tone. "Guess, we'll be on our way to Phandalin soon."  She seems a tiny bit apprehensive as she says this.  

After finishing the small meal, she doesn't really say anything herself. But she finds herself looking around to the others, expecting they will soon express their desire to go.  

While Alisande expands her book of spells, Rasziel would continue talking business, trying to make a clear picture for himself about the operation at Gnomengarde, what they could need and what they could produce, focusing on actual usefulness rather than bizarre outlook, things of utility and functionality that could better the lives of many.
He is quite relieved to see his wings finally poof into a cloud of pink smoke and thank the bearded veteran for mending his torn purple robes. He would later enjoy the wine and bread with the others, even there pondering over the potential of mushroom farms to produce food on a larger scale. Once everyone else is ready to leave for Phandalin, Rasziel is too, seeming quite pleased with his visit and eager to continue negotiations back at the Mining Exchange.

Alisande looks flabbergasted by Meira's reaction. She shoots a bewildered, guiltless look at Zephyros and then laughs. "You make it sound as if I'm committing a cardinal sin! ... Oh, and for the record, if I were swishing at you, you would know." She sniffs with faux-haughtiness as an amused smile plays on her lips, then turns to Zephyros. "You are quite welcome to see if the wand suits you."

When Rasziel rebuffs her attempts to foist the hat of wizardry on him and expands on his altruistic reasons for accumulating wealth, she nods sagely. "I consider myself thoroughly edified." She smiles, but the chastened look in her eyes turns to disbelief as he describes the hat as ridiculous. She shakes her head with exaggerated disapproval and tuts softly, plopping the conical hat ornamented in crescents and stars proudly atop her nest of long red tresses. 

Before they depart, Alisande takes an additional hour to return her beloved companion to the party, apologising for the length of time she has caused the party to tarry.

ACTION: Ritual casting of Find Familiar.

Zephyros looks at the ladies and walks up to them as Meira tattles on Alisande. He lets a smile crease his lips at the banter. Then the red-haired noblewoman offers up the wand to him. "Sure, I'll hold onto it. Could be useful to send a flare into the sky to alert others of danger, should the need arise. How does it go again..." He takes the wand and genuinely seeks to understand the correct decorum. "Swish and flick was it? Like this?" When they are outside, Zephyros tries to use the wand of pyrotechnics to cast the flare out of the Gnomengarde cavern entrance. 

Gareth enjoys some mushroom wine and bread while he watches the rest of the party: Rasziel disdaining the wizard hat, the banter between Alisande and Meira over the correct way to wield a wand, stalwart warrior Zephyros mending Rasziel's robes where the inexplicable wings had sprouted.

"By the way, why did you suddenly sprout a pair of butterfly wings?" the ranger can't help but ask Rasziel after said wings had finally disappeared. "Tell me it's not a result of drinking too much mushroom wine." 

When Alisande finishes copying her new spells and resummoning Ozymandias, the ranger follows the rest of the party out of Gnomengarde, Zephyros in the lead with his new wand. He nods at the hat perched upon Alisande's head. "It suits you," he says. "So...back to Phandalin to see if anyone can build one of these SMADEK thingamajigs?" 

"On the contrary milady, your thorough edification is yet to come." The young dark-haired purple-robed man answers the neverwintan lady with a small and slightly teasing smile. 

"Considering the laws of cause and effect it would be improbable that me drinking the wine just now would have caused the wings to grow out earlier, wouldn't you say?" Rasziel answers the ranger with an amused smile. "It was merely some obnoxious wild magic side effect as the twin barrel monster resisted my magic I would expect, but admittedly I'm not entirely sure, and I hope I won't have any reason to find out."

Rasziel rolls his eyes as Alisande blatantly defies the laws of style and actually dons the coney hat. Considering her igorance to etiquette regarding what to wear, and more importantly, what not to wear, wearing a dunce cap probably suited her quite well though. "Admittedly, on you anything seems to look good milady." He says with a resignant bow

Still chatting with Lyra, Meira catches some of the banter between Rasziel and Alisande. calling over she says, "The hat looks very fitting for you, Alisande!"

She gives the woman a genuine smile. Though perhaps some might think that she is just being facetious, given Meira's typical nature. It's hard to tell.  

Meira though seems content to just talk to the halfling, not bringing up leaving. 

Gareth just laughs. "Well, you never know. You could've imbibed some of this wine earlier when we were making our way through the kitchen," the ranger says. His smile shows he is only teasing the merchant. "But wild magic, huh? Let's hope we don't run into any more of that. The wings were nice enough, but who knows what else could happen?"

"I beg to differ, there was nothing nice about those wings, I could barely move through the tunnels with them, they tore my robes up, and they looked quite ridiculous on me, in fact I find it challanging to imagine worse wild magic incidents happening." Rasziel scoffs. "But yes, let's hope we've seen the last of wild magic." He adds with a calm nod to the ranger, then glancing over and giving the neverwintan lady's wand a concerned look. That magical stick of obnoxious unpredictability was as dangerous as any dragon, and he could only hope it was to be used sparingly.

Meira,

Lyra happily engages in conversation with you. She keeps it light and friendly saying, "Yeah, the gnomes here are super fun. They have so many cool inventions, I can tell they've been through a lot though and they morn their dead. I found out they've lost 13 gnomes in all since the monsters invaded. It hurts my heart thinking that if only we came sooner... no I can't think like that. Lady Tymora guides our paths. My path stops here for a while. I'm going to stay and help the gnomes grieve and lift their spirits. They feel more than they've let on, and Tymora wants me here." She gives you a warm smile and adds, "I'll catch up with you all later I'm sure. There's plenty more mischief for us to get into." She turns away and covers her face with her hair to hide it.

Rasziel,

The gnomes are happy to continue talking about their operation. Make a persuasion check to see just how much.

Alisande,

Ozymandias returns to the material plain after you complete the ritual, he flies up to your shoulder and pushes the hat of wizardry off as he purrs loudly in your ear and rubs his head in your hair.

Zephyros,

Your swish and flick seems to work perfectly. Multi-colored sparks shoot 60' into the air like a roman candle out of the entrance to Gnomengarde. 

Everyone,

Lyra tells you of her intention to stay with the gnomes for a while and you say your goodbyes. The gnomes wish you all well and let you know you're welcome in Gnomengarde anytime. You set out for your 15 mile trip back to Phandalin just as the evening is about to start and the sun disappears behind the horizon. A thick cloud cover rolls in as if following the setting sun. With it a bitingly cold wind picks up from the east. As you walk, first a single snowflake, then two, three. The snow grows in thickness and tempo falling to the ground but melting as it does. Three hours into your 5 hour journey...

8

... the snow begins to stick to the ground as you pass by Umbrage Hill and Adabra's abandoned windmill. You hear a howling distant at first, but seemingly getting closer with each step. At first it seems it's coming from the east, then to the west. Until a large white wolf growls at you only 30' ahead of your path. What do you do?

Meira gives everyone a bit of foreshadowing to Lyra's announcement that she is staying as she yells out loudly, "What!?"  She quickly lowers her voice, speaking in a near whisper to the halfling. 

 The young dark-haired woman looks more and more distraught as she talks. She shakes her head, just staring at the halfling a moment before she continues in whispers to her. 

Eventually the two part, Meira in tears as she leaves the chamber.  As soon as she finds any spot without others, she leans her back against the wall and slides down to sit on the floor, burying her face in her hands. 

A bit later, Meira is unusually composed, though certainly not in a light mood. Before leaving with the rest of the party, she comes over to Lyra and starts to perform a song, clearly directed to her. 

'This is my winter song to you
The storm is coming soon
It rolls in from the sea

My voice, a beacon in the night
My words will be your light
To carry you to me

Is love alive?
Is love alive?
Is love

This is my winter song
December never felt so wrong
'Cause you're not where you belong
Inside my arms

I still believe in summer days
The seasons always change
And life will find a way

I'll be your harvester of light
And send it out tonight
So we can start again

Is love alive?
Is love alive?
Is love alive?'

With song ending, Meira gives Lyra a hug then leaves. 

Alerted by the howling, Meira is keeping an eye out by the time the large white wolf appears. She steels herself to grab her bow but does go for it quite yet. "The wolf sounds upset and ready for violence. It sure would be nice though if we could just get it to move on without us or the creature getting hurt." 

Meira,

Lyra shudders as you respond to her, face still hidden behind locks of golden brown hair. She remains silent for a moment, seeking to regain some form of composure before responding. 

(Rasziel business persuasion: 23)

The young dark-haired purple-robed man, notices some of the painful farewells between the stylish bard and the cheerful halfling. Even he had realized their bond was a special one, and he knew something about leaving loved ones behind. He tries for a small sympathetic smile as Meira rejoins them for their departure from Gnomengarde but finds no words to ease her pain. He takes a brief farewell to Lyra and senses they would meet her again.

As the large white wolf appears in their path, Rasziel quickly takes to the sky, high above, scanning the area for other threats, ready to rain down infernal fire upon the white wolf should it choose to attack.

(Perception assisted by Azazel: 15)

Rasziel,

You learn the gnomes are able to produce roughly 1000 gallons of wine per year. This shocks you knowing their only source of the mushrooms seems to be from the islands just outside. It doesn't add up in your calculations, until the gnomes tell you Gnomengarde is infused with magic that helps the mushrooms grow extremely fast year round in any weather. They demonstrate this to you by plucking several mushrooms. You watch as the mushrooms instantly start regrowing where the ground had been exposed. You can actually see the growth as you watch. The gnomes tell you the ancient magic is likely the reason for the wild magic side effect you experienced earlier, which is why they avoid casting too many spells while home.

As the conversation continues, you learn the gnomes are really quite ingenuous. They are able to create just about anything with enough trial and error, error being more likely the newer the idea. However, their knack for determination and grit is the main reason many of their inventions work so well. They harvest copper and iron locally from nearby which is what most of their contraptions are made out of, and are accustom to selling wine in Phandalin to purchase gold, silver, and other rare metals, minerals, and fabrics they use in their inventions. Unfortunately, they're not very good at recycling and a failed experiment often is a waste of resources. 

The description of one of their "failed inventions" peaks your interest. Described as two bits of woven fabric that when separate are quite mundane, but when put together stick to one another. Soft to the touch, yet firmly held together by an invisible glue or magnetism maybe? You can easily pull the two pieces of fabric apart and put them back together over and over again without them losing their bonding property. The gnomes discarded the idea when the consensus was that the invention didn't have enough moving parts, or intricate enough to be valuable. They called this idea, "Trash" and discarded it as such.

Confident in her intimate acquaintance with Neverwintan fashion trends, Alisande shrugs off Rasziel's flattering disapproval of her sartorial choices and Meira's enthusiastically ambiguous compliment with a smile that verges on the smug. When Ozymandias is restored to her, she gasps when the tressym mischievously dislodges her new hat, before indulging the feathered Duke with a series of fond scritches as he takes her head for a throne.

The wizard applauds as Zephyros practices with his new wand, while clandestinely manipulating the environment around him, secretly levitating random objects in his vicinity - a mushroom clipping, an empty bottle, a stray feather - unobtrusively attempting to seed the idea that Ironheart's arcane prowess is far more expansive than he presently apprehends. 

When Lyra makes the announcement finalising her departure from the group, she gifts the Tymoran a Clan Stonefury signet ring she discovered back in Axeholm as a tangible memento of their shared exploits. "It has been a singular privilege to traverse the road in your company, SIster Lyra. Should circumstances change, and you see it fit to return to the uncouth life of an adventurer, I dare say I speak for our fellowship when I say you shall always be welcome with us."

Should she overhear the conversation about the wild magic afflicting Rasziel, she will insist once again that he take possession of the Wand of Wonder. "This wand feels like it was destined for you, though you wish to flutter away from it."

* * *

Later, on the road beyond Umbrage Hill and Adabra's windmill...

"I don't suppose anyone possesses the ability to converse with beasts?" She casts a glance somewhere between expectant and hopeful in Gareth's direction, while one hand curls around the wand looped upon her hip. 

Earlier

Rasziel grins briefly at Alisande's tease. "If that stick of obnoxious unpredicatbility was destined for me I would sell it, or better yet, destroy it. The chaos it spews forth will eventually bring doom to those around it."

Zephyros gives Lyra a hug and says, "May we meet again, little one." Smiling, he goes and waits patiently at Gnomengarde's entrance for the rest of the party to follow along back to Phandalin.

Later, as they pass Adabra's abandoned windmill and are confronted by the large white wolf, Ironheart immediately places his shield and trident at the ready while looking to the left and right for additional wolves. "Keep a look out! Wolves hunt in packs." However, the darkness and snowfall make visibility difficult even as Felagi tries to assist. "We can head to the windmill if we wish to avoid a fight, or I can  kill this beast."

Perception: 6

Readied action if the wolf attacks, Attack: 12 for 8 piercing damage and an additional 4 thunder damage should the wolf choose to move after the hit.