#npc: hippor

[maydaymadier]

The Docks and The Return (session 8)

Welcome back to the Merano campaign!  All character names are in bold, spells are in italics.  Party members are tagged “merano: [character name]”.  Locations visited (cities, specific establishments) are tagged “location: [NAME]”.  Important npcs are tagged "npc: name." All posts for this campaign are tagged “campaign: merano”.

INTRODUCTION:

The party splits up, Marasmius leaving to go relax for a bit. Calypso, Delphie, and Hugo start looking around for jobs and find a job board with several gigs listed. They end up following up on two. First helping a woman in the Doors with some griffons in her garden. Then heading North to the Upstream district to get a gig as musicians for the opening ceremony of the Radiant Festival. And have a run-in with someone from Hugo's past. Before the day is over, they find a place to stay while they're in town and drown out the unpleasant encounter by having Calypso teach them how to tie knots so they'll be prepared to try and get the gig at the docks tomorrow.

IT IS MORNING AT THE RUSTY BLADE

The next day, the three of them make their way back to Upstream, the Skytouch Port specifically.  They still have some time before the bard gig and the festival, so they’re gonna try and make some money.

Calypso makes sure to pick up their axe before leaving the Clouds.

It’s pretty easy to find the guy they’re supposed to talk to, there’s a long line of people waiting to talk to Constantine Ocea.  Long enough that it takes twenty minutes for the three of them to get to the front of the line.

This Constantine person is dressed in a similar uniform to the captain of the Ceretal’s Fang but dressed down for the heat, more importantly, he bears a shocking resemblance to Calypso.  Same build, same hair, same coloration (though not as muscular or tall).

He’s obviously nervous and ends up sending the three of them to the Singing Port on the other side of the district and to just tell them that he sent them.

Hugo guesses that the two of them must be related, not that any of them have any way of knowing.

As they double back to go to the Singing Port, the three keep an open ear for any rumors flying about.  The word on the street seems to be that there’s a wedding coming up, one of the noble families, not sure who.  But if it’s true, this’ll be a large, sprawling event that becomes a public festival.

The two names they keep hearing are Yildirim and Cortese.

The manager at the Singing Port briefs everyone that they need the docks cleared in the next two hours, it needs to be EMPTY, that includes the workers.

Calypso is directed to a larger ship on the far end of the dock for more heavy lifting.  Delphie and Hugo are paired off for helping unload a nearby ship with more delicate cargo.

Calypso blends right in and starts unloading cargo no problem.  Delphie and Hugo are keeping an eye out for anything arcane as they work.  Delphie finds a box of gold rods that shine with conjuration magic.

Hugo catches a falling box, small, about the size of a shoebox, and he catches it gently with a soft clink as it lands in his hand.  He opens it to get a peak at what it is, it’s a box of star rubies.  When he shows Delphie she recognizes them as being used for spell storing.

Calypso tries to keep an eye out for anything suspicious but only sees decorations for the festival.

Back on the other ship, Hugo tries to pocket one of the gems but gets caught, another sailor shouting him down, snatching the box from him, and marching away.

The two hours pass, and everything is cleared out, the ships leaving as well as the people.  Hugo and Delphie go to catch up with Calypso.

Calypso asks around, trying to find out why the dock needs to be empty.  An annoyed sailor explains that one of the noble families paid out the ass to clear out the port so that they could bring someone in to Keystone Island by water.

They’re suspicious that the Virastis are behind this.

The three of them meet back up and decide this is too suspicious, they should try and snoop.

So Delphie casts Invisibility on herself and Calypso.  Hugo decides to go hide in a box.  However, the only box he can find is next to the Gatekeeper Box, where the controls for the gates to the lake are, and the only person still in the port.

Hugo utterly fails at any attempt to be stealthy but the goddesses must be smiling at him because the people in the Box are too enraptured in an argument about a show they saw at the local community theater.

A small, ornate ship, decorated in green and gold, rows itself down the river.  A sheer-canopied tent obscures a slumped over figure behind it.  Whoever it is seems to be alive, but unconscious.

The gates swing open, with a heavy slosh as they push through the water, and clank shut behind the ship as it enter the lake.

They all wait for another minute or two to regroup.  But immediately come to the conclusion that whoever was on that boat is going to be an ‘unwilling participant’ in that wedding.

When they go back to the Skytouch Port to get paid, Constantine starts to ask Calypso a question that sounds like it should be ‘how old are you?’ but he can’t get himself to ask it, gives them their money, and sends them off.  Everyone is very confused though.

Deciding what to do next, well, they decide fuck the bard gig, they’ll go follow up on that posting for the guard job.

Hugo Sendings Renon, to quit and mentions that he told Agatha where he is.  The reply: “You could have just killed me yourself.”

The Ozdemir Watchtower is also in Upstream so they’re headed that way.  When they get there and ask around about the job, they’re redirected to the workshop of a halfling man named Argo, who’s working on tuning up a clockwork robot when they come in.

He’s willing to hire on all three of them but needs some convincing that they can all hold their own in a fight.

Hugo sticks his foot in his mouth, mentioning fighting the Storm Warden but correcting himself and insisting no, that he’s strong enough that he could fight a Storm Warden.

Delphie does a little demonstration with Magic Missile, Calypso finds a plank of wood to hold up as a target for her.  She pulls it off with enough precision that it does push them back five feet, but they don’t take any damage.

Argo makes sure they’re okay with the travel and let them know to be at the Stonehome Fortress at 7pm, they’ll be there until the guards change off at midnight.

They ask if he thinks they’ll have time to help with the hippocampi they heard about and are told, “they’re large and stupid” instead of an outright no.

So all three head back to the Clouds and decide to do something fun and touristy.  This district is very eclectic and a major cultural center so they stumble their way into an art gallery, with plans to go axe throwing tomorrow.

This one, in particular, is a show of mosaics made out of salvaged materials, cool in theory, sloppy in execution, and the three of them clown on the artist mercilessly.

Before they have to arrive at Stonehome, they stop back at The Rusty Blade to check on their stuff.

When they get there, they notice the goblin and dwarf from earlier with a water genasi and they are having a hushed argument in the common area on the first floor.  While eavesdropping, Hugo notices the name Tobias and Delphie hears a little more, that they’re arguing about this Tobias.

Hugo approaches them and the genasi is not interested in talking but the goblin is fed up with his companion and squeals, explaining that he’s Boggle, the dwarf is Urist, and the genasi is Hippor but there’s one more of them, Tobias, he went to go follow up on a job with the Families, that was two days ago and he still hasn’t come back yet.  That he most likely went to Keystone Island.

The party’s concerned and promise to keep an eye out for him once they get a description.  That Tobias is a halfling, in plate mail, he’s a paladin, with curly brown hair and mismatched eyes.

They grab a bite to eat before they leave the district and as they’re traveling, they notice the Merchant’s Guild Hall from across the lake, a grand, domed building, flying pennants in the black and gold of the guild.

Upon taking the bridge to Keystone Island, there are seven sprawling mansions arranged in a circle, the circular green space in the middle is well-maintained and neat.  This area is being set up as event space.

Once they find Stonehome Fortress, it turns out to be the Virasti family home.

The three of them are split up and posted in different wings of the fortress.

Calypso is assigned to the front entrance.

Delphie is posted in the east wing.

Hugo is sent to the south wing.

Calypso starts up a conversation with one of the staff guards.  They find out that the permanent staff are getting underpaid and overworked, especially in comparison to the urgent temp hires.  In fact, there’s even some talk about striking.  Especially with the festival coming up they’ll have leverage.  Calypso is hands-down in full support of the idea.

Delphie immediately notices that this hall is filled with enough magical items and cast spells that she can more or less see, though she is alone in the hallway.  Until she hears something activate in the room across from her and the Storm Warden comes out, looking frazzled and in a rush, clearly looking for someone/something, holding the book she left behind in Dire.

The south wing is some kind of large greenhouse with a dining area.  There’s another guard there too, but isn’t interested in talking when Hugo tries.  Kitchen staff are setting up the table.

Hugo inserts himself into the conversation the kitchen staff are having.  They’re complaining about being asked to make another place setting at the last minute.  They’re not even being paid overtime.

Hugo casually suggests that she should quit if they’re treating her so badly.  He’s so casual and sensible about it that she does, she quits right on the spot and leaves.

Calypso sees the Storm Warden marching out, heading across the green to meet with a man whose hair is half cloud, the two of them immediately start arguing.  They ask the guard they’d been talking to who the cloud man is.

The guard is also confused, because that’s Lord Tuono, the Storm Warden, Crescenzo, works for him and the Tuonos and the Virastis are good friends, visiting each other pretty often.  Before the shift wraps up, Calypso notices a blip in the sky for a second.

Delphie sees nothing else of notice in the hall before the shift ends.

Hugo sees a woman enter, she walks with an air of authority, finely dressed, with solid amber eyes, hair that turns into wheat, and she has a marble staff, the top carved into a motif of clouds.

The three of them exchange all of the information they’ve learned once they meet back up with each other.

Skipping ahead to the following afternoon, the party returns to Keystone Island for their next shift, as crowd control for the opening ceremonies of the Radiant Festival.

The musicians are warming up and a certain someone is conspicuously absent.

There’s a dias in the center of the green space, the three of them need to be in front, maintaining the distance between the crowd and the stage.

About an hour before the ceremony is set to start, a group of Storm Wardens and druids arrive on the island.  They step up onto the dias, the wardens forming a circle along the outer edge and the druids begin what looks like a color guard routine.

Ending with all of them pounding their staffs into the dias simultaneously, conjuring a massive updraft of wind that clears all of the clouds out of the sky.

Calypso is keeping an eye out for the guard they were talking to last night but can’t find them in the crowd.

Hoever Calypso does notice someone who fits Tobias’ description.  They go to talk to him and tell him that his friends are looking for him.  But he’s never heard of his friends, his name is Tobias but he doesn’t know what they’re talking about.

Delphie checks out the situation and can see that something was cast on him but can’t tell what or how recently.

Visitors start coming in, so they have to go back to their posts.

At the start of the ceremony, seven chairs are brought out for each of the heads of the seven families.

One of them, a middle-aged man with hair that turns into ginkgo leaves, in crisp green robes stands and approaches the gathered crowd, this is Lord Virasti.

He begins a speech, which starts as follows:

Welcome, welcome, people of Feolinn!  It is that time once again!  The goddesses have reached out to each other across the universe and are finally within reach!  This will be one for the histories!  It has been a bountiful year for our amazing city and we will only become a brighter beacon of excellence as time wears on.  I would like to thank the guilds for their help in arranging the festivities, our seven families for their commitment to this tradition, the Temple of Storms for their tireless efforts throughout the city, the Circle of The Stars who ensure that all of us can always see this stunning gift, and most importantly, the citizens of Feolinn!  Tonight is the first of three amazing nights and I expect you all to enjoy them to the fullest.  I will not keep you here long.  But I do have one announcement to make, in conjunction with the Radiant Festival.  Cybele, Cesare, will you both please join me?

Two people join him on the stage, coming down from the nobility seating behind on the dias.  The same woman Hugo saw the night before, though now they know her name is Cybele, carrying the same staff with her.  The second person has long, light brown hair that turns into vines, solid jade green eyes,in a crisp black and gold ensemble, gazing out into the crowd with a thousand-yard stare.

And continues: I would like to announce a day that I will hold close to my heart.  My eldest daughter, Cybele is to be wed to this dashing young man.  We are eager for you to join our family, Cesare.  The wedding will coincide with the final night of the festival, and our celebration will keep yours going for a few days more!  The city of Feolinn is invited to celebrate this momentous occasion with us.  With that…let the festivities begin!

Once the last scrap of sunset has succumbed to the night sky.  It erupts into a dancing, dazzling light show, the Radiant Storm has begun.  Fireworks zip into the sky, the crowd on the island and watching from the shores of the lake erupt into celebration.

#my post #tal plays dnd #campaign: merano #session summary #merano: delphie #merano: calypso #merano: hugo #location: feolinn #location: the clouds #location: the rusty blade #location: upstream #location: ozdemir watchtower #location: keystone island #location: stonehome fortress #npc: contantine ocea #npc: boggle #npc: urist #npc: hippor #npc: tobias #npc: argo #npc: storm warden #npc: lord virasti #npc: lord tuono #npc: cybele virasti #npc: ceasre #dnd 5e homebrew #homebrew campaign #we're chugging along!