Tag Archives: Jigu

Thassilonian Leftovers – Jigu’s stories

Wealday, 6 Sarenith

Well, yes, as luck would have it, there were a couple of more guards … and a strange dwarf named Dolland who was more of a leader than a guard.  He was tougher to subdue and came within a whisker of  being killed, but ended up surrendering just in time.  From him and the 1 dead guard and 3 guard prisoners we retrieved

[1374] Studded leather armor +1
[1375] 3 vials acid
[1376] 2 vials antitoxin
[1377] 3 vials blue whinnis
[1378] 2 vials Terinav root
[1379] MW Shortsword
[1380] book of recipes – Alchemical
[1381] MW thieves tools
[1382] med bag of holding
[1383] bejewelled holy symbol w/peacock feathers

[1361] potion of barkskin
[1362] potion of bulls’ strength
[1364] potion of cat’s grace
[1365] potion of dark vision
[1366] potion of invisibility
[1367] potion of protection from arrows
[1368] potion of reduce person
[1369] splint armor +1
[1370] scroll of protection from evil
[1371] MW cestus

Still badly injured, Dolland turned out to be a font of information.  He had been tasked with opening the mysterious locked door inn the room we fought in, but had been unsuccessful.  More immediately he claimed his assistant had died here from a trap and became a ‘mechanical ghost’.  She continues to install traps in the conference room, for reasons only she knows.  Fixers, we are, all of us and so we felt we needed to put this right.

Dolland also mentioned that there are – or rather, had been – three main leaders for the RoadKeepers: he himself, Lullaby, and Mother NightThrush.  That left only Lullaby unaccounted for – and she, he said, has a reputation for holding a grudge.

He also revealed that Cristella, of the Peacock house, owned a rapier with an invisible blade … as we’d suspected.

He told us there was probably a couple dozen students at the Peacock House.

We decided to disarm any traps and then proceed to find the body of his dead assistance.  That went pretty well, except the ghost came and found us and proceeded to toss Dolland against the wall and start throwing rocks at the rest of us.  We defeated the haunt but felt like we could have done better.

Didn’t take too long to discover Sharlise’s body,  We also found 44gp and

[1372] ring of feather fall
[1373[ boots of elvenkind

We returned to the room with the puzzling door.  We had  secret weapon – we had a sihedron pattern from the back of one of Sir Roderic’s maps that looked a lot like an insignia on the door.  While Dolland went on and on about how the door was impenetrably sealed, and secure, and incredibly hard to force open, it was Droste, I think, who walked over to the sihedron, adjusted a few symbols, and opened the door.

Dolland is a dwarf so his jaw didn’t have far to drop but it was still rewarding to watch it happen.

Inside was at least one smooth white marble wall but also an impenetrable fog.  We tied a rope to Droste and he walked in.  We heard nothing from him until he returned, claiming that inside, the fog was gone and vision was clear.  He found a pair of [1384] gauntlets which radiated/shone/blinded us with strong magic, and there were Thassilonian symbols on them.  We remembered Sir Roderic’s admonition that we needed the gauntlets.  Whatever they could do, we at least now had possession of them.

Droste remarked that the evidence inside the chamber suggested there had been a powerful fire trap there but it had been triggered and thus rendered harmless.  And while inside, he’d been completely isolated from the outside world – no sound, no light, no indication of anything happening.  Curious.

Nearby there was another room which seemed to be another teleport room.  Dolland emotionlessly told us it went to a ‘meeting room’. So … since it sounded harmless, Yanor, Droste, and Vlad tried it out.  And they did end up in a room with a force wall separating one side from the other.  There were two goblins – one, a very hungry goblin and one dead – and a dead goblin dog on the other side of the force wall.  First thing the goblin asked for was food.  His name was Murkel. Droste said he’d bring him food.  But since reaching his teleport platform likely would involve a longish journey around to the goblin lair again, they expedited the rescue by destroying the force wall and pulling him across.  Sigh.

We decided to spend the night here and head back in the morning.

Oathday, 7 Sarenith

Things were uneventful, up until the point we reached the ferry.  There, three RoadKeepers tried to insist on a toll.  However, we surrounded them, and told them if they came quietly, nobody would get hurt.  One of them tried to run, and Shimsa cut him well.  The others hesitated but when Dolland suggested it would be in their best interests, they conceded.  Three more prisoners.  We collected their short swords, daggers, and potions of CLW.

And headed into town to turn everybody over to the guards.

We then visited Audrahni and brought her up to date, including news about the gauntlets.

We decided to rest or shop the rest of the day, and head out to Roderic’s Wreck on Fireday to see if he was feeling more restful now.

Fireday, 8 Sarenith

Well, the visit was largely uneventful.  Roderic was, I’d say, pleased with our progress but to call him restful would be a travesty.  We cleaned the Wreck of a poltergeist and some spiders, but other than that we made little progress.  Yanor, however, was apparently more bored than the rest of us, and so simply put on the gauntlets to see what they might do.

He became instantly aware that while wearing them, he could be shielded from the influence of a single intelligent artifact.

Like, maybe, a rapier with an invisible blade?

Thassilonian Leftovers – Jigu’s stories

Toilday, 5 Sarenith

Yes!  We sold some of the things we found and I now have enough to restock a little … and also buy that haversack.  Now I need not be penalized for being a bit less bulky than the tall ones.  A few extra sling stones need not have me bent over with back pain any longer.

We had barely returned from our shopping trip when we heard Kynae screaming down near the river.  We quickly rushed to his side and he seemed unharmed … whoa, uninjured perhaps.  He was, however, covered in what seemed to be bile or vomit.  Yet he was peering angrily up into the trees and seemed otherwise unharmed.

Following his gaze, we quickly spotted a fairly ugly looking man even smaller than me, looking down from the tree with a somewhat smug and satisfied look on his face.  He identified himself as Retch.   Since Shura and I were the closest we called up to the creature in a not unfriendly manner, “Hey! Wait up!”

We tried to get him to come down, but it wasn’t until we mentioned drinks that his eyes widened, his ears pricked up, and he came down.  While Shura went to the nearby pub, I tried talking more with him — and got vomited upon for my trouble.  This was apparently uproariously funny to him, but trying to keep things light I slapped him on the back and chuckled halfheartedly.

Sasha used prestidigitation to clean me, but shortly, I started feeling itchy for my troubles.  I ended up retiring quickly to go rinse off in the river.  Merely touching him seemed to also carry a penalty, and my humor was fading fast.

Meanwhile, the bottle of cheap wine didn’t last long, and for that matter didn’t stay inside him long either.  I think it might have been Yanor that suggested hard liquor (I was still scrubbing bugs or fleas or something off me own in the water.  But that sure did the trick.  Oh yeah, he drank it all down, but this time at least he passed out.  We examined his belongings and found

[1105] one of 3 talismans he had – this for the beneficial winds.  If he ever fell, this would automatically cast feather fall
[1106] second talisman – freedom – if he is made motionless, this gives him freedom of movement for 3 rounds
[1107] warrior’s courage – if he feels frightened or panicked, he is shaken instead

[1108] belt pouch, containing
[1109] MW thieves tools
[1110] sack of rocks

There was a discussion, but we decided in the end that Retch had not been so egregious that we should take his things.  But we did clean up Retch (prestidigitation; nobody dared touch him again) and turn him over to the town guard.  They were surprised, pleased, and unhappy all at the same time.  “He’s been annoying quite a few folks, how, uh, lucky of you to catch him.  I, uh, guess that makes him our responsibility now.  Yeah.”

Droste and Vlad made a trip back to the ferry but learned little new.  Some chap came thru looking for the “pool of seeing your future.”

Droste and myself went back to Peacock House, mostly to annoy them but ostensibly to ask for progress on the origins of the strange corpse we’d given them.  As expected, they had nothing, but it was more fun for me than getting retched on.  Sure, okay, low bar to clear but I’m not lying.

That seemed enough adventure for one day.

Wealday, 6 Sarenith

Shura felt a compelling need to try to redeem Retch, I guess, so she and Sasha gave it a go.  He was unrepentant and tried to vomit on them both.  Bad move, but they were apparently accepting of his decision.

It was 9am when we reached the ferry.  Today was the day we hoped to find and search the Stone House that the map told us wasn’t far from the goblin’s lair we’d cleaned out.  We got to the gobln place and scouted from there.

Didn’t take long to find a small stone house with 3 humans sitting around an apparent campfire.  There were 4 wagons surrounding the area, and the three did not appear to be alert, as though on guard duty.  Consequently, after watching for a few minutes, we thought that simply asking to see the house might be sufficient.

It was not; they took offense. Treju, Dimitirin, and Sandorio all died surprisingly quickly.

As we were finishing that off, an old woman emerged from the house.  She had a strange, shimmering cloud or field about her that strongly suggested not an ordinary old woman.  But we continued playing nice, ignoring the bloodshed on the grass in front of us, and to our surprise she invited us in.

Shimsa came away with the odd and unsubstantiated feeling that it was smaller on the inside than one might think.  Based on that and, I guess, gut instinct, she attacked the old woman.  Who, as it turns out, was much less of a pushover.  She cast a color spray on Sasha and Shura, and with a sigh, the rest of us joined in. I mean, really, is it too much to ask that we wait for them to attack us first?  Rather puts on the right side of the law, I should think.

While they beat up on an old woman, I started searching for a secret door … and found one!  Droste gave it the once over for traps and then it opened right up.

A stairway led down into the darkness … but then again there was a convenient lantern right here at the top of the stairs.

Well, before heading down, we did quickly search the bodies and the area.  We found

[1329] wand of CLW [29]
[1330] chain mail
[1331] MW cold iron dagger
[1332] amulet of natural armor +1
[1333] spell components
60 platinum plus 6 gold

We also found

[1334] silver candlestick
[1335] 3 books: Varisian Fables, Plants, and Erotica

[1542] 3 short swords
[1543] 3 daggers

I took custody of the short swords and daggers and amulet.  First two went into the haversack and the amulet went around my neck.  Might as well stay a melee kind of guy for now …

Then, inspecting the wagons, we found a lot of loot.  These guys must have been taking in a fair amount of tribute at their roadside robbery stand!

[1316] 900gp of misc stuff
[1317] carved wooden box with 24 pearls
[1318] gold statue
[1320] vial of magic weapon
[1321] scroll of comprehend languages
[1322] wand of glitterdust [9]  <– I grabbed this one too

Finally ready to go down the stairs.  At the bottom there was a boarded up door along with a

[1323] silver feeding bowl  <— I picked this up
[1324] lantern

We continued thru a couple of rooms and down a couple more staircases, before we came across a few coins and a deck of cards – non magical.  While we puzzled over that we heard voices, so we put everything back and arranged ourselves in the chamber above.  Trudging up from the stairs below came six guards … and it took only a few seconds for us to gain six more short swords [1328] and six more daggers [1344].

Going down the stairs we found more guards, but the hard way this time (they nearly surprised us.)  But five more short swords [1545] and five more daggers [1546].

We keep running into more guards and while it hasn’t troubled us too badly, I’m slowly using up my spells.  Might be more morningstar in it for me if this continues.

Thassilonian Leftovers – Jigu’s stories

As interesting as I found the whole Thassilonian saga that unfolded in the last decade or so, as fascinated as I was by the history and the language itself, and as much as I might imagine the adventures the Sandpoint heroes had .. I never thought I’d be even remotely involved in anything Thassilonian. And yet … here I am. We apparently have found ourselves looking for some sort of Thassilonian artifact which has been described, but never actually found.

Moonday, 4 Sarenith

We returned from Roderic’s Wreck with a some vivid memories, a few valuable items, and a healthy respect for how many things out here could kill us. I found my interest in the Runelords strangely sharpened, but also dimmed when confronted by real effects in present day.

While making my usual Moonday delivery rounds, I chanced to pass through the doors of the weapon vendor Lindwin, while he was in fairly subdued discussion with a pair of dwarves. It started to rise in volume and, being me, I stepped up and asked if there wasn’t something I could do to help? They both looked briefly embarrassed but then Lindwin explained that the dwarves were having trouble delivering product to him. A dwarf quickly interrupted and proclaimed the REAL problem was, literally, highway robbery.

Their wagon apparently has to pass through the Churlwood. This has never proven particularly hazardous before, but just two days ago their driver and an assistant had been taken. They’s managed to keep the wagon, but their companions had been kidnapped. By goblns, no less! They said it was the Bramble-something .. I didn’t catch the name … some tribe of goblins which have been mostly harmless until now. I considered all that was going on and carefully said, “I am familiar with some people who may be able to help. Let me get back to you.” The dwarves looked at me – a halfling – like I was insane but Lindwin held up his hand before they could say anything. “We would be pleased if you know of people who can help. Churlwood being outside the city, the guard is less than interested in this.” I nodded and went to find the rest of the group.

I returned to the group and together we chatted with the leader of the guard. Turns out, this wasn’t the first the guard had heard of these Churlwood issues, and while the kidnapping was new news, he’d already sent two members of the guard off to investigate.

Two members that never returned.

It would not be understating the case to say he was interested in having us look into the situation. But before we could get very far into that discussion, we were interrupted by a partially coherent resident.

“The … things .. they, the mouths! They’re melted! They … they …”

When we calmed him down, we were able to learn that some sort of figures, or monsters, or .. creatures had come out of the woods not too far away and attacked him. He was shaken enough that that was about all we got out of him, but we offered to the leader of the guard to go deal with this new and pressing issue.  He was happy to accept the help, since, well, he was already short two deputies …

Two misshapen creatures were quickly discovered, and almost as quickly dispatched. My participation was minimal, because I’d pretty much used up all my magic missiles and force missiles and, try as i might, my skills with my quarterstaff yield as much damage as a harsh look would.   I was, however, an excellent lookout.

But since nobody had seen them before now,, and nobody knew how they’d come into existence … it would be hard to say this area was now “safe”. Shura was able to read their tracks, however, and learned they did not come from the woods.  The last place they’d been, before here, was town.   If we’d been looking to reassure residents, this was not the way to do it.

We theorized, perhaps, this was a result of some goings-on at the Peacock House.  They were strange, and pompous, and full of themselves – exactly the sort of people who might create misshapen creatures with sharp teeth.  Well, okay, it made more sense at the time.  We decided upon the ‘ruse’ of taking a body to them and asking for their opinion on its origins, then carefully gauging their reaction.  Our plan yielded nothing but a quick glance of the inside of their house, as they asked Vlad to place the body in a small outbuilding.  Quickly, they said.  Don’t leave the door open too long, they said.  And Vlad did as asked, but swore he saw some largish, bony, spiderish, skitterish creature dash out from under a bed just as he was closing the door.  They’d do some analysis and get back to us later, they said.

i doubt it, though.

Several in the group felt an inexplicable urgency to follow up on the dwarven kidnapping, so even though I warned them I needed to rest and study my spells, the group headed to the ferry.  I rolled my eyes and went along; even without magic,  I was still one of the better armored members.   (The delivery business can be tough 🙂 )  Perhaps I could serve as a distraction if I couldn’t be a wizard or a warrior!

Well, we’d no more than crossed the ferry and there were five Roadkeepers there demanding a toll for safe passage.  To be honest, they were there waiting even before we boarded the ferry.  We tried discussing the situation rationally with them, but rationally is not a word they know how to spell.  “Lullaby” was their leader,  but she learned when all of us concentrate on one target, we can make that target bleed pretty fast.  I feared we were in for a full battle, but the sight of their companion getting beat up took all the fight out of them.  “Must have been some mistake,” said Lullaby before she and the others picked up their companion and ran off.

We continued on the path, and – well, okay, when I say “the path” I’m pushing things a bit.  The path from the ferry was neither clear nor well maintained, but Shura again was able to track the most-travelled path to take us in the direction we felt the kidnapping might have occurred.

It didn’t take too long before we reached an unusual clearing.  It was unusual in the sense that while the path had been rough and unmaintained, this clearing seemed much more orderly.  There was a dead oak tree in the middle, with a clear path all the way around it.  And another thing that made it unusual was the three apparently dead bodies near the tree, in guard uniforms.

There was also a shiny amulet hanging from a limb of the tree.  I could see it was radiating magic.

The more we looked at it, the more it looked like a trap, and the shiny thing a lure.  But a lure for what?

Then as we cautiously circled the clearing, a shambling figure emerged from behind the tree.  After a moment, somebody yelled it was a “trailgaunt” and not to cross the path.  I needed no more warning than that – again, I was largely without magic at this point.  But while the trailgaunt may have been forbidden to cross the trail, it apparently was not restricted from digging under the trail.  We yelled to each other when it tried that trick, and we were able to keep awat from it.  In the end we were finally able to kill it, but it took a while.

The shiny thing, we found was a holy symbol of Desna which afforded its wearer greater protection against mind control spells.  We resolved to come back and recover the bodies, but for now we continued to press on in search of the goblins and kidnapped dwarves.

Proceeding cautiously, we finally came upon an entrrance to a cave, outside of which were three goblins attempting to guard it.  We dispatched them fairly quickly, but then were left facing a tunnel.  With goblins inside.  Who knew we were there.

And the bad luck for everyone but me, was that the tunnel was goblin-sized … or halfling-sized.  Everyone but me would be restricted in their movements.  And I .. I would be restricted in my sight because I’m no dwarf and can’t see in the dark.

Despite those impediments, we came up with a plan that took out the 5 goblins waiting under cover in the first chamber, and when most of those were down or preoccupied, I was able to use a rock with light cast upon it to advance quickly past them and make sure there were no reinforcements coming.  However, our next challenge would be that beyond this point, the tunnel got even narrower, such that it would be tight for me and the big people would probably have to crawl.

And as if that weren’t enough, a quick scout through that tunnel revealed another chamber, with even more goblins in it.  Maybe now people will want to rest and regain strength and spells.  Maybe.

Thassilonia Revisited

Starday, 2 Sarenith, 4718

I sipped my ale and looked around the room. Being a halfling, my view is typically blocked by, well, everybody. So long as I don’t sit in the corner of the room, there are usually seats from which I could see what was happening. Actually, when the opportunity presented itself, sitting near the corner, but listening closely, works best for finding out what is happening in town.

Today, that strategy had worked extraordinarily well.  It was not unusual, these days, for the Hornfangs and the Roadkeepers to be loudly posturing in the pub, but usually it ended with, “yeah, and your MOTHER too!”.  But recently, some Hornfangs had been found dead in the middle of town, and that had turned everything up a notch. It was still unsolved, and the guard was keeping details to themselves.  And that gave license to everyone in the pub to create their own details.

Today,, a bunch of Hornfangs seemed even more agitated than usual.  Not without good reason, mind you, given the recent deaths, but these guys decided to take it out to the market.  I quickly finished my ale and scurried outside.   Ale-fueled discussions often were the most interesting.

So, I was out in the market when it all started.  The Hornfangs were already making noises about how “somebody” ought to do “something” but “nobody” seemed to be doing “anything.”  It might have stayed at the usual level of complaining if a group of Roadkeepers hadn’t approached from the next street over.  My thinking was that this would be even more subdued since all of the market was around us and there was plenty of room to avoid one another.

But that wasn’t really the goal today, apparently.  When one of the Hornfangs bluntly told the Roadkeepers to leave, one Roadkeeper just as bluntly announced “We were here first.”   Weapons were drawn, and the market became a dangerous place.  I saw several of my usual pub mates take on a serious look, and Shura and Vlad both stepped in between the Hornfangs and Roadkeepers.  Shura glared at one of the Roadkeepers and looked pretty intimidating, but he seemed unruffled.  Sigh. I was ready to step up too, at least to defend my drinkmates, but it was right then that it happened.

Sir Roderic, the founder of Roderic’s Cove, put in an appearance.  A pale, but distinct, ghostly figure appeared right there in the marketplace,  and with a slow turn that encompassed the entire market, shouted “No! Not! In! My! Cove!

Most of the marketplace scattered.  I guess Vlad held his ground, but once I was sure the ghost was gone, I came back.  So did several others and we talked among ourselves about what had just happened.  i’ve been here for several months and never had anything like that happen, but according to some of the old timers, Sir Rod has been known to put in appearances before.   And then, finally, the guard came.  Sheesh, talk about timing.

We explained what had happened and he nodded solemnly.  He took a few notes, asked a few more questions, and then found ourselves being interrogated by Audrahni.  When she realized there was actually more than a half dozen of us interested in the ghost, and the Roadkeepers, and Hornfangs, she suggested we continue our conversation over dinner at the Creekside that evening.  We all eagerly agreed.

It was Droste who suggested we try taking some time before dinner to track the Roadkeepers who’d run off.  He’s pretty good at this, I guess, and easily tracked them to a ferry over the river not too far out of town.  Tracking further on the other side seemed pointless, since as we got farther from town, the more likely we were to actually find our targets.

Over dinner that night, Audrahni told us a bit more history of Roderic’s Cove, and how things have been escalating lately.  There were a few details about the recent murders that she knew of but weren’t entirely public – like one body was stabbed in the throat, but the other five bodies had not a mark on them.  The expression on their face looked like they’d died from fright.  (She prepares the bodies for burial, so she knows this stuff.)

We asked if the locals, the Hornfangs, have a meeting place.  She replied she was pretty sure they did, but it was not, unfortunately, common knowledge.  She looked us over and asked, pointblank, if we’d be interested in doing a little investigating.

A bit surprised, I looked around the table.  Droste, Yanor, Sasha and Shura, Vlad, Shimsa, and myself.   I guess that would be a nicely sized investigative team.  Our mission would be to find out more about this rivalry, and perhaps also learn more about why Roderic’s ghost continues to hang around.  Ghosts, after all, usually have a reason for sticking around.

Sunday, 3 Sarenith

We learned from a guard that a Jana Guildersleeves is the apparent leader of the Hornfangs – though of course she seems to have disappeared of late.   She is the daughter of the former governor who, ten years past, was run out of town on charges of corruption.  The guards also mentioned a strange fact – the Roadkeepers seemed to refer to their leader as “Mother”.

Vlad came back with even more disturbing news … when he went to his job at the mill, he discovered several absences.  Millworkers aren’t always know for their loyalty to the clock but it was noteworthy that all of those missing were confirmed or suspected Hornfang members.

We split up to follow up on these several different leads.  For my part, even though it was Sunday and many business were often closed, i made the usual rounds to see if any deliveries needed to be made.  One of my usual customers, Ladia Killstrop, revealed to me that she was out the night of the killings.  While she didn’t hear or see anything, she did believe somebody did.  The son of the town drunk finds it convenient to not be home most of the time and she found him running, very scared, and very closemouthed.

I was able to locate him at a local sweet shop, and we hit it off well due to our common affinity for the pastries.  He revealed he’d been doing some night fishing when he heard loud voices.  Drawn to the source, he kept hidden, but heard bits of the conversation.  One lady was real mad.

“You have no right!”
“It is not yours!”
“You aprobing the ruined cymbal!”

Wait.  That last again?

“You’re a pro pre 8 ing it!”

Appropriating. The …

The Rune Symbol.

Oh.  Oh no.

“She drew a broken sword and stabbed a man without touching hm.  Then the ghosts and monsters went after the others.”

I took this information back to the others.   We quickly realized that the “Hornfang” very much resembled the symbol for Wrath.  This nearness to the Runelords was both exciting and dangerous.  But hadn’t they been defeated?

When the group learned of this, we decided we needed to understand more of Roderic’s story.  Were the Runelords somehow  still impacting this region?  Did they contribute to his death?  We planned a trip to Roderic’s old estate (“Roderic’s Wreck”) to see if anything could be learned there.

Audrahni said to be careful, and mentioned if we could help Roderic find his peace, she’d consider it a personal favor.  To assist us she gave us

[1200] six vials of holy water, and
[1201] a wand of cure light wounds [13].

Moonday, 4 Sarenith

Well, Rod’s place sure was a wreck.  Place really needs some work.  Lots of bugs.

First we were attacked by stirges.  The others managed to take care of them before any got to me, but circumstances found me throwing force missiles at the cockroaches that came after us next.  And the swarms of spiders.

Droste managed to find a map, of sorts, taped to a desk drawer.  It had the traditional X marked on it, as well as “ST.HS”.  It was only a partial map, which made it hard to tell us what it was really describing.

In what appeared to be the dining room, we found

[1250] silver service

And Droste claimed to have seen Roderic and his family in the family room.  At least, that’s what he seemed to be screaming when he ran from ther room.  🙂  By the time we looked, there was nothing there though.

Then in the kitchen, a blob of .. whatever.  More force missiles.

However, going to the master bedroom was the real win.  There, we discovered a ghost, but not a frightening one.  Roderic’s ghost had a long disjointed message for us …  “The Cove”, “The Stone House in the Woods”, “Save them”, “The Gauntlet”, “My key”, “My Map”. There was also, here,

[12B0] box, lead-lined,  pair of keys stuck inside it, and it was in the shape of a sword.

The name Baraket was engraved on the box, which is the sword of the Runelord of Pride, and s known to have an invisible blade.

Oh good – Roderic and Runelords all mixed together.  Were they mixed at the time of his death?

Next room over we found the – yes – giant undead cockroaches.  This is why you don’t leave poisonous food lying around.  The food will attract cockroaches, the poison will kill them, and then their poor attitudes will bring them back as angry undead cockroaches.

A scream came from the lounge and Droste exited quickly, shaking his head and muttering “nope, nope, nope, nope” as he headed outside.  He’d apparently found another frightening figure, but when we looked in there something just threw things at us so we shut the door and left it alone.

On to a sewing room which seemed to be afflicted with flying sharp objects.  We left the room and allowed the painful objects to embed themselves in walls and furniture, then reentered.   But a little searching found a box with a false bottom and

[12G0] 9 gold bars (~200gp each)
[12G1] 1 pair scissors

We moved on to what seemed to be a cartography room, and Roderic again appeared to encourage us.

“My map! They took my map!  Holds the key to the vault! Baraket will control them! It will control you! You must endure where I cannot! In the vault! Save my Cove! They took it!  To town!  Gauntlets are your hope!”

Then into what appeared to be a child’s bedroom.  There was a sound of soft crying or whimpering but of course it was not that simple.  We found a skeletal child who stole Shura’s voice.  She took the opportunity to strike at it, and we all joined in.  It died.  But it still took a little while for Shura’s voice to come back.

Lastly there was a closed closet door that sounded like water was running.  When we carefully opened it, well, yes, a bunch of water did come out, along with a few objects.  A notable one was a soggy

[1260] magic slippers – 1/day for 10 min ignore difficult terrain (“feather step slippers”)

We searched around the grounds a little but didn’t find anything interesting.  I think we’d had enough excitement for one day and sure didn’t want to spend the night there, so we headed back to the Cove.

Jigu Bardcreek, halfling Arcanist

Jigu Bardcreek sipped his ale, sat in the pub, eyed the usual patrons, and waited for something to happen.

There was no guarantee, of course, that anything would, and often when it did, “something” was only vaguely amusing.  But if one was patient, and one had had enough ale, sometimes “something” was worth waiting for.

To be honest, “something” had a pretty low bar to clear.  Roderic’s Cove was not exactly a center for, well, anything.  There wasn’t much crime.  There wasn’t much culture.  There was a fair amount of  commerce, thanks to the docks and the fact that Roderic’s Cove was the closest seaport for anybody living upstream on the Chavali River. It was that same commerce that had kept Jigu employed for several months now.  Deliveries, on an irregular but relatively frequent basis, had been sufficient to eke out a living. It wasn’t a guarantee of elevenses every day, but it made it possible more often than not.

He had been in Roderic’s Cove for several months now, even though he’d originally considered his stay “temporary”.  He was a favored courier, because he had a reputation for honesty and trustworthiness.   His keen ability to appraise items on the spot, had more than once saved an employer from being cheated.

He was pretty sure that nobody in town knew he had also studied spells and wizardry.  It was not particularly a secret, but it just didn’t come up in conversation, and he didn’t really know enough to consider it a profession.  It’s not like he was some sort of bar magician, sawing people in half.  His spells tended to be utilitarian—for a courier, like dancing lantern or, in a pinch, vanish.

Jigu was most recently from Korvosa, nominal home of the Sihedron Hero Trask Feltherup.  Trask’s father has a home and business there, but Trask himself has yet to truly settle down.  Jigu had some theories about how sorcerers and wizards are more similar than many think, and his investigations and research have led him to conversations with Trask himself on a couple of occasions.  In fact, Jigu had managed to work magic in a way, according to Trask, that few if any have done before.   He found Trask impulsive and less…disciplined than Jigu likes his world, but  he was still a source of both inspiration and information.  In fact,  it was Jigu’s consultations with Trask that led to Jigu’s  fascination with things Thassilonian.  The tsunami wave at Magnimar’s shores a few years ago convinced him that the Thassilonian past was still a clear and present danger.

He believed he could learn more about Thassilonia and Thassilonian lore by visiting Magnimar and visiting with other experts.  Travel takes money, though, and he’d paused here in Roderic’s Cove longer than he’d expected.  A one-way job with a delivery caravan had brought him here, certainly off the beaten path if one were going to Magnimar, but…it’s the kind of place, he mused, he wished he’d grown up in.  He’d kind of got stuck here, but really, he didn’t mind it so much.  It wasn’t a bad place to be stuck. Plenty of time yet to head south through Sandpoint—an interesting Thassilonian place in its own right.

But not tonight.  Not just yet.

He ordered another pint of ale, because his observation was,  the more ale that was flowing, the more likely something interesting would happen. And there were no deliveries tonight or tomorrow that would make it a bad idea.  So Jigu Bardcreek sipped his ale, sat in the pub, eyed the usual patrons, and waited for something to happen.