Pizazz's Ravenloft and Beyond

Tommy grins widely as he looks up at Ketch, "Wow sir, you really optimistic about your chances!  A entire week? I'll take your money. I mean, I suppose 2 gold fer a whole day, ten days, that's like...at least fifteen gold or somethin. Though....I ain't no Tout. I'm just a light boy. I can show you places i know and stuff....but...I ain't ever eaten here...too rich for me....but...I hear good things...seems like fancy people like it. If you all are gunna eat, then...i'll come get ya in the mornin.  Maybe 4 B P?  That's....four hours before the peak of light....Before...Peak. Anyhow..you'll figure it out.  See you then?"

The group makes their way into the Inn. The entrance hall is barely a wide corridor with a desk crowded in it, a narrower hallway leading away to some narrow stairs up, past several doors. An open door leads into a tiny dining room that must have only eight tables crowded amongst it. Six have people eating.  A.....round metal thing..with one big eye in the middle of its....body...and some skinny metal looking legs and arms ...as well as a pair of strange wings sticking out of its back...stand on a stool behind the desk. 

"Welcome to the Mhole Note Inn. My name is Unit Number 23411 Dash 54. Would you like to book a room to stay, or are you here for supper? If you are here for both a room and supper, please respond by saying 'both'."  

Lionel says, "Both." 

"Excellent, please state the number of rooms you would like to rent, in addition to the number of evenings you would like to stay. Check-out is at 2 B P.  We have single rooms for 15 Silver per evening. Double rooms are available for 25 Silver per evening. Suits are available for 45 Silver per evening and can accommodate up to five guests of average mass." 

The group selects the room situation, and the round creature passes you a number of keys to match. "Please direct yourself to the dining room threshold and the hostess will find you a table." 

You literally turn around in the tight spot and are at the threshold of the dining room.  A similar creature is standing on a tall stool behind a lectern just inside the room.  "Welcome to the Mhole Note Inn Dining Room. My name is Unit Number 65522 Dash A5, and I will be your hostess this evening. How many will be dining this evening?"   

Eventually the group is seated and ordering...from...Unit Number...something or other...your server this evening.  The Bebelith shank turns out to be...well...imagine a giant crab leg. Then imagine a peice of crab meat the size of a roast is taken out of it after being boiled.  Instead of red skin, the Bebelith shank has a dark purple color to it, but is all white tangy meat.  The rest of the meals are likewise quite excellent though all I little different from what you're expecting. The stirge eggs are quite fishy in aftertaste, and oily.  The only normal thing seems to be the goat. That said, you enjoy a rather exotic meal.  

As Meepo finishes the last of the savory meat, he looks around at the others. "Meepo not sure what Meepo, and Meepo friends, doing here." He says as he looks around the place. "Meepo never been Sigil, Cage, whatever call it. Meepo worried what Meepo and friends doing here and why crazy mage here too..."

Lionel was quiet during the meal. Tasty, sure, but the place... needed to get used to. Overwhelming on every level, simultaneous assault of every sens a human (dwarf, orc, kobolt, tiefling and even Goliath) have - wrong smells, wrong sounds, wrong look, even the air and the very ... physics was off. He suddenly felt homesick of Borovia. They certainly needed a rest, at least he did, simply to get used to everything here.

"Suit for five guests," said Lionel firmly and explained to others "this is a new strange place, do not think we should split up now. Better stay together until we learn something about the place, even talk to the crazy wizard." He thought about it for a moment. "May be not that one, but still, let's keep together?"

Meepo nods to The Lionel. He looks around the tavern some, taking in the various strange things around. Then he has a thought...

"Meepo wonder if this where all lost things go." he says, looking excited. "Maybe Meepo found home of lost things here..." He stands on his chair and looks around the place again. His coppery scales gleam in the candle light in the room as he smiles, his sharp teeth looking more predatory than mirthful. "Meepo found home of all lost things, what Meepo do here might end lost things for ever!" He nearly shouts the last thing in his excitement.

     Ketch ignores most everything and orders a second helping of the goat.  Pretty much everything looks odd to him always so this was really just more of the same.

     “We really should talk to him,” Ketch interjects regarding the wizard.  “Sounded like he might give us stuff if we don’t ask for too much.  Besides, he’s the only person we know. Could be everyone else even crazier...”

"I agree.  He's the only point of contact we have.  I mean, what else are we going to do...ask the barkeep for the local rumours?" Mordekai asks with a hint of irony.  "The Fortune's Wheel, he said?  Is that another Inn?  At least we'll make Tommy earn his money."

"If you count us among lost things, Meepo, you are right it's exactly the place," begun Lionel rather pessimistically but did not elaborate and joined the wizard discussion. "Tommy was going to bring us to someone else." The idea of someone even crazier than Mordekainen did not sit well with him but he would prefer to explore all the options. "What "stuff" do you plan to ask from that mad man? The only precious thing here, I would say, would be a way to return back home. And he did not provide us with one." He grimaced  either from thoughts of the wizard or may be the food. No, food was good, it was definitely wizard. "Not saying we do not have to meet him, "(he kind of was) "but what are you going to ask of him?"  

(Sorry, I must've missed the boy telling us he'll take us somewhere we can ask our questions. It's been a busy week, I maybe only half read that post. Ignore Mordekai's last comments!)

((Comment still works, no worries...))

     "I think general questions would of course be asked - How to get home, where are we now, etc.  He's a wizard, maybe he has a way to restore you to what you were?  Or maybe he just knows of ways for us to make do here?  I don't have a home I need getting back to, exactly.  Was just sick of the endless mists in that Barovia," Ketch chimes in.  "If we have no quick way to 'home' , for lack of a better phrase, then we'll need to make a living here...  We should learn where, what and how here is?  All in all, I think those answers would make more sense coming from someone who knows where we were, what we are used to?"

"That... would be good," admitted Lionel. He spent last days (or weeks? it felt like a lifetime!) learning to deal with his new situation, and thought that he indeed came to terms with it. But it would be a lie to say he stopped thinking about his former self. "Still, I think we might want to meet that "question answer" Tommy has to offer. As a "second opinion" of a sort. Then we could compare the notes. Never hurts with crazy people."

The idea of sticking around in this place he was not ready to discuss yet - too alien for any kind of plans or wish to develop any. "May be a night could help to clear heads, shall we check out suit?"

"Meepo like place." Meepo says as he glances to the others as they talk. "Meepo might end lost things for good." He shrugs though as he takes his seat. "Meepo wonder if maybe Meepo and Meepo friends brought here for reason. Meepo think maybe ask around and see if reason be something like vampire lord issue, or if something else heros like Meepo friends needed for."

Ulthan looks completely lost stepping into the city, then nearly walks with his head permanently stretched up looking at the other side of the city well above him. Looking around he's sure to not have enough arrows for the guards in here. Knowing his coin purse is virtually empty he looks for the edge of the city so he can camp outside somewhere when the time comes. He asks the kid "hrmpfh where city gate hrmpfh" and then "hrmpfh forests near hrmpfh" in his monotone voice. His stomach grumbles at the inn, but orders nothing. Going to be tough to find a beast friend around the city he thinks. Otherwise he's very quiet looking at all the oddities present, to him at least, at every 5 steps in this city. Nonetheless he knows enough about cities to avoid both bumping into someone and keeping a certain space around him at all times for his light purse need not be any lighter.

     “Heroes?” Ketch says, scoffing at the notion.  That had certainly never been a goal of his, nor did he think of himself that way.  He was just a Priest of Gruumsh, an Abbot of Battle, a Cleric of Conflict. It was the fighting that he relished...

     Still, there were sides in a fight.  No reason he couldn’t choose to be on the heroic one?

     “Heroes, huh?” Ketch asks again.  “That doesn’t have a bad ring to it, I guess...”

     After paying for everything, Ketch indeed heads to the suite and searched for a good nights rest.

After the rather exotic, though tasty meal, the group eventually retires for the evening. The room here is smaller than you were expecting for a 5 person suit...though nicely appointed.  It has a king bed, a couch that pulls out to another double, filling most of the rest of the main room....and then has a separate bathroom with a half-bathtub....and appears to have running water with both hot and cold water.  A separate bedroom is just big enough for the double bed it contains, plus a chair crammed between the end of the bed and the floor that actually pulls out to a single bed.  There is a window in the main room looking out, through glass coated with brown grime on the outside, to the main street. The other room contains a window looking back into an interior courtyard between several buildings. A tiefling wearing a dirty smock drags a large paper bag of garbage out and dumps it into a big wooden bin of compost. Rats scurry away as he does so.  Outside the "light" which just seems to be a diffuse concept here not really coming from anywhere.....slowly fades into darkness. Lanterns out on the street are lit one by one.....by a troupe of four men with long sticks with lamps at the end.  The lamps on the street seem to glow a hazy blue. 

Exhausted by all that has occurred, the group settles in, though even here, agree to someone staying awake and on guard....watches are setup.  But the beds are comfortable and sleep comes easily when you each get the chance. 

The 'morning' comes after an evening of strange dreams. Mixes of horrific scenes from Barovia blend with chaotic images from Sigil and you're left feeling glad to be awake, and feeling clear headed.   When emerging from your room into the narrow hallway, you come face to face with an insect faced demon. Four arms hang out of a blue stylish cloak...while mandibles clack and large bug eyes stare at you with alien intent. A long torso body sticks out from below, with two spiked chitineous legs. It clacks, but it's clacks seem to form an attempt at some words, "Ex-Cs Mmmaa."  It says it again, and this time you realize it's saying, "Excuse me."   You step back into your room so it can pass by, then head downstairs. 

Breakfast here seems a simple affair. There is all you can eat or drink, tea, coffee, and pastries for 7 sp per person. Or there is a 'Huntsman' Breakfast for 2gp that includes two large slices of "Huntman's Ham", served with spiced Arborean apples and Arcadian eggs. 

Tommy sees you pass by the window and comes in to sit stand in the corner behind your table, like some sort of servant.  "I 'us gunna take ya to the Hall of Information today. May not be what ya want, but...hey, it's a start. We're in the Clerk Ward afta all, and ya wanted the dark on somethin, so, good place ta start us.  You gunna eat the resta that bun there?"

Mordekai sees the boy stand at the table, and says, "Sit, boy. You're not the waiting staff here, no need to stand to attention at our table." Mordekai will order a pastry breakfast, and pay for one for Tommy too.

"I think the Hall of Information sounds like a great place to start."

Mordekai will make sure,  before they leave after breakfast, that all the others have written their names on the page in his Tome - if they didn't last night. 

"Take it," immediately offered Lionel and added another bun too with a cup of tea. The night did not calm his worries and the casual meeting with the demon - he felt his presence stronger than others - only add to uneasiness. He and that place had a long road ahead of them to warm up to each other. But Lionel was a fast learner (at least sometimes) and remembered "no fighting" rule in time, hence, demon and aasimarian dwarf passed each other unharmed.

"You better eat too," remarked paladin to Ulthan, "if not for fighting you might need your strength to run. And it's all included anyway." (He did not have the appetite today to buy a special breakfast) 

"Clerk Ward? How many Wards are here? And do you know what is on Lady's Ward?" Lionel strongly suspected that the name was self-explanatory and probably should not be asked of a small boy, but the wizard was there and they were going to visit him at some point."

P.S. Lionel wrote his name at first request, with calligraphic precision despite dwarven hands.

"Actually, Tommy..."  Mordekai flips to a different page in his Tome.  "Can you write?  Either way, could you write either you name or make your mark, on this page in my book.  Only if you're happy to, mind.  But it'll mean that if you're not with us and we need you as a guide, I'll be able to send you a message.  You'd hear my voice in your head, so don't be alarmed if that happens, and you'd be able to reply briefly to me as well.  I think that might be helpful to us, and it might mean more work for you.  Would you do that?  You don't have to if you don't want to."

     Ketch ordered the Huntsman breakfast for himself, and one for Ulthan as well.  If the Goliath wanted pastries there were already plenty strewn around the table to grab, and if he didn't want the meat, Ketch was more than happy for second helpings.

     Ketch had sidestepped the whole writing his name in the book thing last night, it just had an oddness to it that didn't feel right.  But during his morning devotions he thought upon the concept muchly and while it didn't seem less odd, it also didn't seem sinister.  Mordekai was a companion.  They had fought side by side.  If he wanted his name he could have it...  At breakfast Ketch shrugged and grabbed the proffered book and pen.  Mordekai surely would have preferred Ketch took more care, with the spillage and the crumbs and the stains even if he didn't mind the blocky letters Ketch carefully sketched out, but in the end the name of Ketch Krumstawp was in the book...

     "We'll see this Hall of Information you talk of," Ketch said to Tommy with a grin. "And we'll be getting the city gaits pointed out to us, and directions to the nearest forest or woods, if you could.  And you could talk yourself, as well.  How often to total strangers stumble into this city?  What tales do they tell of how they came her?"

((Hadn't kept great track of spending here so deducting 40 gold, which I am sure will cover it?))

((Will cover that and the whole week of staying? Plus Tommy?))

((That was kind of the plan, pay in advance and all...))