Pizazz's Ravenloft and Beyond

     “I believe we kind of have two places, currently.  Our original rooms were paid up for a week, so they are still available to us.  Then we stayed at Fortune’s Wheel more out of convenience than need,” Ketch points out.

     “I believe we are all tired though, and for the moment we are a bit flush with coin… I can have us back at the wheel in but a moment if nobody objects to their prices?”

     If the group decides to return to the wheel, Ketch will reach into a pouch and withdraw the stone he collected from behind that establishment.  Using the stone as a focus, Ketch will then Teleport them all to the locale… 

"Would rather return to the Mhole Note Inn." Lionel could not explain it but the "Wheel" was giving him some barely felt and yet present uneasiness. "Decadent hotels are good for pleasures, but if you need to keep your ear to the ground to any extend - less flashy places serve better. Fits status too. Though, if we are just to rest... " He shrugged - as long as you have the roof and the bad, it did not matter much where to sleep.

"Meepo no care where sleep." Meepo says. "Meepo just need rest so can have magic to raise skeletons when get skeletons."

     "Either locale if fine by me, but I can only teleport to the Wheel at the moment..." Ketch advises.  

Etain is waiting outside for you and as Yaddle goes on his way, the tout comes over and then starts leading you back through the city. He takes you down a few different streets, pointing out land marks as you slowly curve your way around and head back towards the Mhole Note Inn. Despite the disorienting nature of the place, you are starting to figure which way things are, and recognizing land marks. Of course there's a whole dark, smoke filled section of the city that you can see in the sky that you know you've never been to.  Even from here it looks grimy and miserable.  That said, you eventually find yourselves back in the narrow streets near the Mhole Note, and then soon enough bedding down for...the day? ..... in your small, but clean rooms. 

Many hours pass as you rest. Eventually though you find yourselves down in the restaurant enjoying a lovely meal of strange dishes. Combinations of salads, meats, breads and sauces that are curious, but all together tasty. Outside you notice Etain hanging around with a couple other folk that look like touts as well, but they pick up travelers from time to time and go away, while others appear and chat. 

Well rested, with food and drink about you, you're in a good place to decide what's next. 

Like a broken automaton Ulthan pipes up "hrmpfh portal place hrmpfh".

"Better than that - portal placeS," Lionel rested well and was again full of calm energy and ready for the next adventure. "We can be systematic about it. If there is a tour showing all the official portals - they might as well explain how to use them and in any rate, we will know where they are and what to expect on the other side. May be there is one to our plane even? Then we can get Meepo's skeletons. From the sound oft it, it might not be that easy. And then we have the bad wizard and the book. We have to at least find the house and check it from outside."

Lionel hesitated for a moment but finally added. "I would like to visit the Temple street, if you don't mind. Can do it afterwords, of course."

     Upon reaching the Mhole Note inn, before resting, Ketch would look for an item associated with the location - a small knickknack of some sort, a memento.  If nothing of the sort is immediately available he'll settle on cutting a wood shaving from underneath his bed and marking down where he got it from and slipping it into his pouch.  He wants a piece of the place so he can teleport back here in a pinch.

     After breakfast, Ketch agrees with Lionel that the tour sounds like the most practical option.  It may indeed find us a way to what everyone needs - a place for Ulthan and cat to hunt, a place for Meepo to raise and perhaps, though he wasn't going to hold his breath, a way for everyone home...

Meepo nods at Lionel. "Meepo wonder if portal tour might lead to place get skeletons easier." He shrugs. "Meepo not know, but there likely place has skeletons, through a portal somewhere."

Ulthan seems to frown at the groups decision to take a portal tour, but as usual, says nothing. Mordekai gets the sense that the big quiet man seems to be trying to get them to go to "some other portal place". But, with everyone agreeing on tours, they could follow his lead after that. Ketch grabs a paper card from the front desk. The business card has information about the Mhole Note Inn and is really the perfect teleportation key....it's already labelled!  

The group heads out onto the street and tell Etain they'd like to head to a tour operator. Etain gives them a "really?" look, and then shrugs, "Alright, I mean, you don't seem the tourist type, but, i guess everyone likes a little tour once in a while. I've been once on an outlands tour. It seemed nice enough there. Though with the spell plague wreckin the outer planes, it's a bit of a different place. But, whatever." 

The group is led down the now familiar main streets to the market ward and the grand bazaar. The bazaar is still a maze of booths, tents, and structures for the group but Etain cuts through the press quickly enough until you find yourself in a spot riddled with tour operators. Etain ignores most of them and heads past the booths and tents into a permanent shop inside a stone building. "Myson's Outland Tours" is scribbed on a metal plated sign above that is stained with rust. 

Etain nods to a young female human behind the desk, "Hey Betha, how ya doin?"  The pretty blonde smiles to him, "Hi Etain." She glances up at the group, then rolls her eyes at Etain, "You better not have offered them a special deal again? You're not getting commission on those anymore."  Etain puts his hands out defensively, "No no, they asked to come here, I didn't entice anyone. Uh...folks, this is Betha, she's Myson's daughter and runs the shop here, and the best tour operator about. Betha, these are some mean, lean planars lookin to go on a ....tour." 

Betha nods, "Happy to take you all out. We have 2 hour tours, 4 hour tours, and overnight tours which include a stay in one of the Outlands famous cities. You'll be taken by two of our highly skilled guides. We have tours of the wilderness, where you'll be able to see celestial and demonic influenced wild animals. We also offer tours of the spire base, any of the 16 gate towns, and the library of lore though only 2 hours tours for that one, since you can only see the outside. Do you need more information to choose?"

(If the payment for Quill's rescue was given to Mordekai, which I think it was, he would've split it among the others while safely at the Inn - 1200gp each, if you've not already marked it.)

Whilst they're still on their way following Etain's lead, Mordekai picks up on something he says.  "...Spell plague?"

     "Is it possible to arrange a specialized or specific tour?  We are looking for some specific things and are here looking for the quickest way to find our way to these places..." Ketch asks, hoping to cut to the chase.  

Ulthan hrmpfhs but says nothing when Ketch asks. That said when group is at lunch, Ulthan's going to skip it and go with the kid. He's got money now, can finally get somewhere.

"Pleased to meet you, Betha" Lionel was polite as usual. "As my friend here just said, we had an impression, there is a tour that allows visitors to see some public portals around the city with information about places where they lead. If this is not the case, then do you have some list of the planes you guides can take us?"

The list was not worth the walk - surely, Etain could bring it in or it could even exist in the Inn - but there is always a hope Betha could knew something special for "special" clients. Lionel elaborated. "The only particular portal we are looking for is the one that can take us to the Prime Material plane. Other than that it is more of a learning about the city and about our opportunities here, not just a sightseeing."

Etain looks at Mordekai when he asks about the spell plague, as if he were insane, "You know, like, 100 years ago, when all magic went all wonky and the universe got torn up and reassembled?  The Gods were killin each other and dyin?  See, the universe used to be like a big wheel.  The spire with sigil on top was at the center, the outlands spread round that, like a big disk, and then as you reached the outer edge of the outlands you started to merge with the 16 outer planes.  Then there was some other stuff with ethereal and astral and the prime and inners and the like.  Anyway, during the spell plague, all the outer planes got torn off the outlands and ended up drifting off into the Astral. Least, that's how I been told all bout it. Course the gate towns still have portals to the realms floatin in astral, same as before...so...as much as things change, they still pretty much stay the same, you know? All common knowledge ya know." 

He says all this as if you should understand it clear as day. 

Betha looks at the group, "Oh, I see. Well, we only have a portal to the Outlands that we use 'ere in Sigil.  Well a couple.  From the Outlands there are the 16 gate cities which lead to the 16 realms, of course. But...there are a couple sorta permanent portals to the prime in the Outlands. Course, there's not guarantees of safety with a specialized tour to a gate like that, and the tour ends if anyone goes through a gate they're not directed to....with no refunds. But we can arrange a tour to a prime gate...assumin they're where they were last."

Lionel sighed. Complications of the city did not fully get him (yet) but he was far from embracing them either (yet). He did not pay much attention to the history of Spellplague (he learned it in lesser detail and a more "material-plane-centric" for obvious reasons) in Etain's interpretation, but Betha's explanation changed things a bit.

"I see," repeated he after the girl, and summed up the description "so, two known portals to get us to the 16 gates, and two of those gates might lead to the prime worlds. Thank you, you have been most helpful. If you excuse us for a moment..."

He pulled everyone aside to discuss the situation. "Should we go now? It sounds promising enough, and yet has a potential to get us lost even more. The portal that was kindly shared with us by the Great Mordenkainen, leads straight to Hells, if I remember anything from my schooling years. Probably not the best place to start. I do not mind to explore any options but we have some sort of obligation in the city - with the book. We are here already and free to see these gates but would it be worth it without the goal of getting through?"

Betha seems to want to correct Lionels' understand, but then she shrugs and smiles, "Um, close enough."

     “As far as we know, whatever pathway there may be back to home isn’t going away…  so if there are things we should do here, we should do them while we are hear,” Ketch responds.  “Gruumsh knows I never wish to return here!”

     “In truth, I’ve nothing drawing me back from where I came… but I would like a sky again.  A world I understand..,”

"Meepo like place here." Meepo says, but he seems unwilling to speak of it more than that, and sidles closer to Mordekai, as he will go wherever his friends go regardless.

Lionel nodded energetically - he fully shared the sentiment. "Then probably we can dedicate this day to Mortuary in Hive Ward (?). To get some skeletons for Meepo and put his mind at ease. By the description the place sounded dangerous enough to not plan anything else. Then we will be more fit to finish that task we begun - the genie and the book."