Rusty at Social Interaction - September 24, 2021

 - Once everyone is tended to in the hospital, the group sets out for the Golden Eagle once more

- Except Osiris who goes to return the wheelbarrow she borrowed from a random market stall

- The restaurant is not yet open, so they go around to the back and knock on the kitchen door and a very large man with an even larger handlebar mustache opens the door and asks if they are there to deliver turnips, but since they would like to sell wine they have to talk to the lady of the house

- The restaurant is very sumptuous with fabrics and velvets on the walls and immaculate marble tables and comfortable divans 

- Mistress Bianca is an elven woman dressed in an equally sumptuous dress / robe thing

- Theophania tells her about Rusty finding the bottles of wine under the docks after he fell in during "official Temple business" and lays the flattery on very thick

- Theophania also explains about how she can tell that wine has been there for several years based 

- Rusty offers 10 GP per bottle, she counters with 3 GP each, he counters that she has a similar wine that doesn't have the unique properties that these bottles do for 8 GP and surely she can get market them well enough to make it back with a profit, they finally settle on 5 GP for 9 of the 10 good bottles that were well-sealed

- Rusty then explains about the 6 bottles that may be wine or may be vinegar or may be utter crap, and they settle on 10 GP for the lot.

- Mistress Bianca declines to keep the kelp and mussel-covered crate to use as a display

- Theophania says that she's going to head to Town Hall to talk to Shawn Andertree again to see what he might know about weapons trafficking on the river

- She drops the tip to Shawn about the weapons trafficking so that he can pass it off to the guard in addition to the note that Rusty already wrote. Then she asks him about Vera's third birthday party next month and he already go her a doll, so she will try to make an animated plant instead.

- Osiris heads back to the Temple at this point to go to the library to read about black dragons

- Everyone decides to join her because Theophania wants to see if she can find a book with a picture of a Red Mountain Pipe so that she can copy the picture out. (She finds one.)

- Osiris finds that black dragons

    - They are temperamental and have a tendency to taint the land around where they live

    - They usually live in swamps or unclean places 

    - A dragon of the age they fought in the marketplace would not yet have the capability to create slimes, so those were probably still caused by Magnus

- Rusty reads about vegepygmies after Tiff mentions wanting some of their spores to make the pot thing she was talking about for Vera's birthday present

- Once everyone is done reading, they head to the Groundswallow General Store to ask about a shelf for Rusty, but they don't have anything nice and ready-made sitting around, so Tiff just gets some old coffee from her mom and a 10-lb unglazed clay pot and the promise of some whole tea leaves from Osiris and Rusty buys 5-lbs of rock salt against russet mold

- Some of Theophania's childhood antics are discussed:

    - Attempted automatic wood chopping machine with a sword she got from Great-Aunt Thessalie(?)

    - Huge fight with Eldie when he stole bits of the giant Rube-Goldberg machine she was building across the whole living room

    - She was mixing things from the time she could hold them

- They finally make it back to Callie's and open the bottle of river wine

- It's a nice wine with good character that's aged well on the bottom of the river

- They also drink the mead Cormo gave to Tiff and then Osiris escorts a stumbly Theophania back to the Temple for sleeping

- Tiff drinks her Flight potion so that Osiris can just pull her along for 10 of those minutes.

- Bright and early the next morning, there's a knock at the door of the Curlywit boarding house.

- Rusty opens the door to see a small human boy around age 10. He is looking for a "purple dragon". He says he'll go get her and shuts the door.

- Raiàn agrees to come down after she's gotten dressed since Rusty had to wake her up for this bright and early meeting

- The child is a bit freaked out by Rusty and keeps a good distance refusing offers of a morning beverage.

- Rusty's version of making faces at children is to make his eyes cycle through different colors and make them look a bit like a starfield

- Raiàn finally comes downstairs

- The boy hands them a note written in draconic. Very badly written draconic

- It reads:

One could hear the night last. Jimmy goes business beard and barrel. Meeting night to come. Getting needs he. - Rosella

- She responds (in common):

I think I understand what you've said in your missive. Thank you. If I need to ask about what you've said I will send a messenger.

- She pays the boy a silver for a tip

- Rusty pops one of his arms off and then uses the detached arm to wave goodbye to the messenger boy

- She hands the terrified boy a second silver and he bolts

- Raiàn then has to explain why what he was doing was not friendly or funny but terrifying to a child

- Magnus comes downstairs in his robe and gets one of yesterday's pastries

- Meanwhile back at the Temple, Osiris goes to Norman in his office to ask for the ingredients to make two Potions of Resistance (acid) and George asks (to her horror) if she has the proper requisition form signed by her superior.

- She very begrudgingly fills it out and finds Birel who reluctantly signs the form for her

- She returns it to Norman who will have the ingredients sent to her room so that she can make the potions

- Osiris and Theophania head to the boarding house to gather the others for the day

- 540 XP ea for 3,240 XP total ea.

Mistverge Market Meltdown - September 10, 2021

 - Kyle had to call Antonia and apologize for being an asshole

- So many poison ivy tales

- RETCON - Rusty dropped off the anonymous note to the guards before they went home last night.

- The next morning Osiris attempts to wake Theophania at around 9, but that isn't successful so she comes back at 10 and so she gets dressed and they head to the boarding house

- Meanwhile at the boarding house, Rusty asks Callie if she knows who might want to buy the wine he pulled off the bottom of the river

- There are ten good bottle of well-sealed wine and six that have broken seals.

- She says he could sell the good bottles at the Rose Petal (well-to-do, but not too pretentious), the Little Big Bar (halfling run), and the Golden Eagle (snooty).

- After some discussion, they decide they will go to the snooty place, but stop at the Hall of Justice on the way to talk to Shawn Andertree in Transportation

- They borrow Callie's wheelbarrow to take the wine to the north part of town

- As they are walking near the river near the Temple, Osiris hears a screech sound that is coming from above and she looks up a sees something large and dark flying overhead 

- It's a black dragon! And it's landing next to the Temple!

- Osiris tells the party to hide

- Theophania ducks under the wheelbarrow.

- Osiris then sees someone exiting the Temple, and the dragon starts moving aggressively towards that person

- Osiris tries to use Thaumaturgy to make it sound like there's an even bigger dragon approaching

- The dragon pauses in its approach, looks around, flies up and around a bit, then lands again this time near the Docks Market

- There are screams instantly.

- Rusty tucks his wheelbarrow between the low wall around the temple and some bushes

- They all go running in that direction

- Raiàn drops the info that a nice dragons would land outside the city, and walk into the marketplace as a human since they can shapeshift

- Theophania actually stops running to contemplate one of Great-Aunt Thessalie's friends who came to visit when she was a tiny halfling

- Osiris uses Channel Divinity to give everyone Temp HP (4) as they are approaching the marketplace

DEFENDING THE MARKET

- Osiris casts Bless (2nd Level) on everyone but herself and she yells into the marketplace for the townspeople to hide as she continues running up the road

- Lyrielle runs to put herself between the townspeople and readies attacking the dragon if it attacks

- Theophania runs as close to it as she can and yells that they are willing to work with the dragon if it just won't attack anyone

- The Dragon breaths Acid breath on two townspeople killing them

- Raiàn knows that this dragon is quite young, but it should be old enough to understand language but only Draconic at this point. So speak in Draconic to it, asking it why it's here killing people. It growls at her in response, so she moves up close to it and tells it that they can't let it hurt any more people so either it calms down or they have to beat it up. She readies Magic Missile 

- The dragon turns and breaths acid at Theophania and Raiàn (the Magic Missile goes off for 12 force dmg) and they take 12 acid dmg

- Rusty goes into a rage seeing his friends get attacked and he runs up to the dragon and misses

- Townspeople start scattering

- Osiris casts Spare the Dying on the nearest townsperson who took acid damage and then casts Guiding Bolt on it for 39 radiant dmg

- Lyrielle runs up to flank the Dragon with Rusty and bonks it with her staff for 9 bludgeoning dmg and then she kicks it for 6 bludgeoning dmg and then punches it for 6 bludgeoning dmg

- Theophania casts Cure Wounds on Raiàn for 3 HP asking that she talk him down

- The Dragon moves around to the other side of Lyrielle (Rusty misses an opportunity attack) and breaths at Lyrielle and Raiàn for 10 acid dmg

- Raiàn moves around so that she won't hit Lyrielle then she breaths at the Dragon for 3 lightning dmg and then Misty steps behind one of the market stalls

- Rusty moves around to flank with Lyrielle but misses with his attack

- The townspeople run away some more

- Osiris casts Spare the Dying on the second townsperson then moves up to Lyrielle, casts Cure Wounds on her for 13 HP, then she moves off again

- Lyrielle smashes the Dragon for 11 bludgeoning dmg and then she Disengages and runs back

- Theophania runs out of hiding tries to casts Faerie Fire on the Dragon but misses then runs back into hiding

- The Dragon Disengages and flies away. They see him fly up and dive into the river and disappear swimming away

- Osiris runs over to check on the townspeople, the one who was closest to the Dragon was too burned by the acid to have been saved by her spell, but the other person is still miraculously breathing, so she grabs a cart from the nearest stand, loads the survivor into it and sprints back to the temple as quickly as possible

- Rusty grabs the dead person, heads back to where he stashed his wine, puts the body on top of the crate of wine, and then carries on to the Temple also

- Raiàn and Theophania also trudge over to the Temple to get their acid burns treated

- Theophania asks if Marta is around to ask about the dragon attack

- Osiris retrieves the casualty from Rusty and takes it to the Rites wing and reports the dragon attack to Birel

- Birel is concerned

- Marta comes over to talk to Theophania and Raiàn about the dragon attack, but she doesn't know anything about it either

- Raiàn explains that it was like a nine-year old having a temper tantrum and being too angry and upset to listen. But it's weird because this is a weird territory for this kind of dragon and that such a small dragon would attack such a large city

- 350 XP ea for 2,700 XP total ea.

This Beer Sure Tastes Sharp #DownByTheRiver - September 2, 2021

 - The next morning, Theophania hunts down Headpriestess Marta to confirm that she can use the apothecary facilities to experiment on a topical ointment that would make other people listen a little better

- Osiris goes to find the finance person of the Temple, Norman an old human man, to inquire as to whether or not she has a salary

- Norman hasn't left the Temple grounds in like decades, and he certainly doesn't know anything about slimes or murders

- Osiris could get funds for equipment she wants if she gets a form signed by a senior officer of the temple and turns it in

- Raiàn, Lyrielle, and Rusty meet the bartender of the Black Dog at a park in the nicer part of town near the confluence of the rivers

- Lyrielle actively hides that she's there as backup if Raiàn gets jumped

- Rusty stays nearby, but not like he's part of the conversation, just to prevent Raiàn from getting jumped

- The bartender (short human woman - her grandmother is a halfling) will get a gold piece if her information is good, and she has a beef with Jimmy as he's made her life hell since she got there (He's a groper)

- Jimmy is trying to pull something at the docks tonight (Pier 6), and he seems like a real dangerous dude

- She knew Wally by sight, and saw him play cards with Jimmy a lot, and he brought in beer all the time

- Rusty and Raiàn have a talk about what makes a villain and whether killing a person is the worst thing you could do to them

- Theophania walks all day to get to the Proudmead Apiary to talk to Zenphina and Cormo.

- Zenphina hasn't heard anything about Jimmy and Wally

- She talks to Cormo about flowers and which ones might have a scent sweet enough but subtle enough for the ointment she wants to try to make

- He thinks the Red Mountain Pipe from way up north might do the trick, but it doesn't grow around here

- He also gives her a nice bottle of their best mead

- Osiris talks to Birel about how she would need him to fill out a form to get funds and how this hasn't come up in the over one hundred years she's been living and working in the Temple

- Birel says he'll think of something

- Osiris then heads to the boarding house to see what they might have learned

- They head to the docks area just after dark

- Theophania sets an Alarm spell (as a ritual) about 10' up Pier 6 then she hides in the nearest bunch of crates to the pier in question

- Rusty climbs down the ladder and swims over to one of Pier 6's support posts, but when he tries to grab it and hold on, he just slides down to the bottom of the river. He finds a crate that someone dropped, which he ties a rope around and then climbs up the steep river bank  

- Lyrielle examines the nearby warehouse - She doesn't see or hear anything from the door, so she walks around the building and listens for something

- Raiàn over to the boat docked at Pier 5 and pretends like she's working by sitting and pretending to be writing on some parchment

- Osiris hides in some boxes at the next pier over

- They wait for hours and then the Alarm spell goes off in Theophania's head

- Lyrielle, Osiris, and Raiàn see them coming as one of them is carrying a lantern.

- They go into the warehouse and Lyrielle hears them say "It's these right here. These are the ones." Then they open up some barrels.

- Tiff leaves her crate pile and goes to a crack in the wall where she can see lantern light and then they start moving the barrels to the part of the warehouse closest to the ship. She could not see what was in the barrels they opened.

- Osiris sneaks over to Tiff and tells her to get ready to hide really quickly. Then she casts Thaumaturgy to make it sound like a guard calls out "Who goes there?" And then she and Tiff duck around the corner.

- The guys in the warehouse go on alert, pull weapons, and check the doors.

- Jimmy sends one of the guys to take a look around the building

- Rusty comes up out of the water right around the time the dude starts checking the perimeter. He freezes and pretends to be a rock and is not seen.

- Lyrielle back flips gracefully into the deep shadows.

- They spend like another hour and a half moving the boxes and barrels around

- Lyrielle hears Jimmy say that Lindella gave him this crap job and then they head out.

- After they wait for them to leave, they go inside and investigate the barrels. They are stamped with the logo of the Butterbeer Brewery and they are filled with what look like orcish made weapons. This is not explicitly illegal, but it is sheisty

- They close the first barrel and open a second one, and it's full of orcish axes.

- They close that one up too.

- They decide to have Rusty write an anonymous tip to the town guard about the weapons cache since no one would know his handwriting

- Theophania helps Rusty haul up the crate with Physics! and they find it is full of bottle of a pretty decent wine

- They decide to send it back with Rusty's since he found it

- When Osiris gets back to her room, she finds a pouch of money (125 GP) with a note saying her stipend requisition has been approved and future payments will be 

- 500 XP ea for 2,350 XP total ea.