Monstrous Compendium Vol. 1: Spelljammer Creatures
Frozen Sick
D&D Beyond Basic Rules
Basic Rules (2014)
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Monstrous Compendium Vol. 1: Spelljammer CreaturesFrozen SickD&D Beyond Basic RulesBasic Rules (2014)Sign in to view your library & saved favorites.
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This... I mean, I suppose... I don't mind, I guess, if you all want to... it's not quite... I reckon it will be okay, if you think...
Witt sounds about as unenthusiastic about all this is he possibly could, without quite saying no. The thought of attending a rich gala with lots of fancy city folks is very unappealing to him, but he rallies at the thought of the religious significance. I suppose it is in honour of the harvest. Sort of like the Harvest Fayres back home. Except a lot less fun, he mutters quietly. I can go as a Cleric of Oryn, we're always expected to be represented at such events. If I'm lucky, maybe I can see something useful. I doubt people will pay much attention to me.
Moira
Picking up the coin I give Hakon a nod "Sounds like a fine place to start."
Looking at the others. "Sounds like we have some preparations to see to."
Nemeia's eyes widen at the prospect of starting off this investigation with some extra coin. Things were looking good already. She would need to update her attire in order to be presentable at such an affair. Her life in workshops hadn't really offered her much opportunity for the finer things in life and there was a strong chance she was going to need some guidance on the formal affairs of it all. She looked at those around and wondered who would be able to assist with that and decided on Moira. She made a note to talk to her about it later.
"Yes. Much to do!," Nemeia says with excitement. The task at hand was going to be quite involved but Nemeia was rather excited. They'd fought giant gross things together but would they be able to navigate the social demands of a high court. Probably not, but who knows? She moves to accept the coins knowing that coins in her hands were much easier to spend than coins in someone else's.
Sora kept her gaze on the Duke as she considered her options. It did seem like this would be a good path forward for everyone. The others seemed to agree as they reached for their stack of coins. "Don't worry, Duke, we'll be sure to conduct this investigation our own way. We'll let you know as soon as we got anything useful to share. Till then, thanks for the vote of confidence." With a smirk of her own, Sora grabbed her own stack of coins, letting them jingle in her hands. "Well I think we wasted enough of the Duke's time. Let's get out of here, shall we?" She then turned around and started walking out of the mansion, perhaps a bit too eager to leave this place.
Nemeia, feeling they've received enough information to complete the task, nods. "Thank you for trusting us with this task," she says to the Duke. "We'll get to the bottom of this."
Witt walks out, shaking his head and inspecting his clothing for gala-suitability.
Moira
As they are all getting prepared to leave Rusty makes as if to jump on the table once more but poofs away. "He really can be a handful sometimes." I then attempt to bring him back unnoticed somewhere hidden but close enough to the table to see and hear. Then follow the others out of the room.
(Not entirely sure if I need to roll or what to roll to pull that off.)
Once they're escorted away, Nemeia will look to the others and says, "Any of you been to a gala before?"
Rusty Stealth : 22
Once the entire group leaves the mansion, and is a decent distance off the premise, Sora takes advantage of the moment as she takes in a deep breath then shudders in disgust, "Ugh! That was unpleasant. Alright, I think it's time I look for that bar fight just to get the smell of 'Greedy Shit Hole' out of my mouth. Anyone wanna join me?" From there Sora will head back to the Sturdy Unicorn, as she hopes to have a chat with Gus on the best places to go for a bar fight in town, among other things.
Moira
As we draw close to the entrance of the mansion I go to put the gold in my pouch but drop it instead. "How clumsy." Stooping to collect the coins I take a moment to see and listen through Rusty. Then pulling my senses back I puff him away once more. Finish collecting the coins and continue on the way out.
Rusty Perception : 22
Moira:
As your senses move away from you, slowly you start to see within the office of this Duke once more but from the very skewed perspective of your familiar. At first you don't notice anything special and it takes you a moment as you reorient yourself before you can spot the Duke still sitting at his desk. It's hard to tell what he's doing, at your best guess from the sound of things you're pretty sure he's writing something onto parchment. After a moment he stops and you hear a shifting of some kind. You can't make out what he's doing from your perspective but it sounds like he's moving something, or perhaps grabbing some kind of object. For a second there you think you saw some kind of weird light but you can't be sure. Then you hear the Duke speaking.
"Ah my Beautiful Lady. It's your dashingly handsome Duke and Future King calling."
"Duke Hakon. Did I not tell you we should not be speaking so casually like this?" A woman's voice replies, as clear as if she were right there standing in the middle of the room, yet you don't see another soul anywhere.
"Indeed you may have said as much, but I chose to ignore the advice. Besides, there is no issue with wishing to speak to another noble, particularly when it comes to matters of state of which we are both so deeply concerned. For the sake of the citizens, of course." The Duke says, you can only imagine that same smile still on his face, "At any rate, I merely wished to inform you that my next move is in motion. I've found quite an interesting bunch of adventurers to help us discover the proof we seek."
"I still disagree with this, you don't need some boorish group of muscle brained glory hunters getting involved in this." The woman insisted with an annoyed tone, "It doesn't matter if that foolish child on the throne murdered anyone. All that matters for my goals is for enough people to believe she did."
"That might suffice for your goals but not for mine." The Duke shot back, "If there is one shortcoming of elves it is you tend to take far too long a view on things, and thus fail to see the tree through the forest, so to speak. For most of the people of this kingdom who are not as long lived, they will inevitably forget about this. Even if you manage to convince everyone of the queen's actions, they will only see it as an annoyance, perhaps even an embarrassment, but not worth the effort. Eventually they will simply move on. What I want, what we BOTH want, is to continue putting pressure on the young queen until she finally breaks. Ideally, admitting to her deeds in the process. Only then can we properly replace her. That's how we both accomplish our goals."
"And? Do you seriously think these ruffians you've hired will manage to find this evidence?"
"Does it matter?" The Duke nearly laughed, "Whether they succeed or fail, they will, by the necessity of the investigation, have to put more pressure on the Throne. Even in the worst case scenario they should prove a distraction for that brute of a security guard. If they do manage to succeed that will just be a nice bonus for us."
"Should you really be speaking so brazenly after having just met the pawns you've put into play?"
"Were you not the one who assured me of the security of this communicator?"
"That is not what I meant. And you know it."
"Ha! You are too paranoid, my lovely dearest. The hirelings are walking out of the estate as we speak. And this room is specially enchanted so no sound or sight can escape past these walls if I don't wish them to."
Before you can hear whatever remained of the conversation you feel yourself being poked and shaken causing you to revert your senses back to your body. Next to you is one of the gate guards looking at you curiously.
"Oy, have you found your bloody coinpurse yet? We can't have you just falling asleep like that right in front of the gate and all." The guard asks you, his face showing a hint of concern but also quite a bit of annoyance over having to deal with this in the first place.
Moira
”Of course. I will be on my way.” Once we are clear and before there is time for any of us to head off on their own. “We must hurry back to the inn and talk. Rusty has learned some interesting things.“ The little panda poofs on to my shoulder. Once we are back in the room I go over what I was able to over bear with the group. “The duke does seem to think the queen guilty of something but I think his own ends are far from good.”
As soon as they reached the inn, Sora split off from the rest of the group. "I'll be up in a moment!" She tells the rest before making a beeline for Gus.
"Heya Gus. I'm guessing you know all the best places in town, but I got a fun one for you. Where would you go if you were ... a fan of bar fights, ... and maybe looking to take part in your hobby tonight?"
After a hopefully quick conversation with Gus, Sora will head right back up to their room. After hearing everything Moira has to say she'll offer her perspective.
"Yeah, I think we all kinda knew that. Clearly this guy's only interested in himself. So, **** him. We should just find out who the real killer is regardless, and maybe find out who really needs our help here while we're at it. I don't know about you guys, but honestly I wanna talk to the queen. Seems like her's is the only story we don't actually have yet. ... I just really don't wanna have to go to this gala to do it."
Having said that she also didn't want to admit that she couldn't think of a better way to get the queen's side of the story other then going to this gala.
Moira
”I’m looking forward to do some shopping and go to a royal party. I think it will be fun. I bet Gus knows where we can get some outfits made. I’m also curious what the queen is doing about looking into the old queens death. Even if she did it there must be some sort of reward being offered or investigation through the city guard right?”
Prior to the group meeting at their room ...
As Sora spoke with Gus he looked back at her with a smile that was almost too happy, and knowing glint in his eye that lent weight to his words, despite his outlandish style of speaking,
"Oh honey, oh you delicious chocolate cream blondie you. I know the perfect place for you sugar. Now sure, if you're just looking for a basic bar-fight, there's dozens of places all over the labor district where you can easily get into a tussle. But that's no fun, and you're probably just gonna get in trouble, or simply trouble other nice folk here in town. No, what you want in the BEST bar-fight in town. A place so perfectly built for a bar brawl you won't even get in trouble for it. Well it's might not be exactly what you expect, but who knows, maybe it is, either way any true connoisseur of the bar brawl simply must visit this place once in their lives. Any time you're ready to bleed a little, love, you should head down to this quaint, not-so-little pub down the back end of the Labor District called "The Blood Pit". Just find Gizel and tell her Gus sent you, with love."
Once they are in their room, 9 situated herself in a comfortable position on the couch. She contemplated about the whole situation with the Queen for a while, before asking the group, “I suppose we should formulate a plan. I don’t think all of us should go to the gala, but definetely the majority. I don’t think this kind of endeavor would happen without people of the underbelly of the city knowing of it. Perhaps we should ask them some questions as well, albeit it would more complicated and dangerous than the gala. Also I definetely agree, we don’t really know the Queen’s perspective, but we would uncover our investigation if we were to directly ask her about the supposed assassination.”, 9 spills some of her thoughts in the room, rotating a raven feather between her fingers all the while. She stops for a moment, “Where do you think the Duke gets all his money from? I mean, even for a rich individual he seems to have a lot.”
Nemeia ponders for a bit trying to think of what 9 is leading at.
History: 8
Nemeia - As far as you know, based on you experiences with workshops trying to acquire raw materials, as well as observations you've made traveling through this Kingdom, Tarrin's major export is raw minerals and ores from the many mining operations throughout the kingdom. You can guess that, as a noble, Hakon probably owns a great deal of land with numerous mines that could provide a lot of revenue.
Witt looks at 9, trying not to think of attending a gala. History 11