Our five heroes have their task. They have their destination. Now they just need to gear up & head out. But before all that, they also have some errands to run, both personal and aligned...
Sendak makes his way through the city streets. The recent past playing and weighing in his mind. He felt good about what he has been doing lately for sure. He even finds himself sharing these sentiments with his new friends more often. Yet he didn't really show the emotions physically. He thought them, occasionally spoke them, and that felt to be enough for him. Distracted with these thoughts, he ended up in the Temple District a bit quicker than he expected. Proof he has been learning the streets of this city much better lately. No longer is he following tree lines and rock walls, but instead city streets, points of interest, and local smells. He made his way to the Temple of Ilmater in the western end of the district, it's doors lie open. The local and foreign downtrodden surround the entrance, sitting against it's walls, holding their hands out to the passers-by of the area. Their pleas falling on mostly deaf ears. Such is the way in the eyes of Ilmater. Soon the Goliath found himself in the main hall of the temple, looking for the passageway that led to the chambers of the Monks he has associated himself with as follower of the Broken God.
The Three Monks Of Ilmater
As Sendak arrives in the Monk's chambers, he notices it is abnormally quiet. The sounds of the temple's surrounding areas seemed to muffle & disappear from his senses. He looked throughout the dimly-lit space to see that there was no one around. Just piles of books, rough-strewn sleeping mats, and dust billowing in the air. "Ahhh, the Goliath returns, he does." says a disembodied voice emanating from somewhere within the room. "He senses them all around him. He can step within them yet he now stands so openly?!" the voice continues. Sendak then felt a brush against his shoulder of something that went from behind him to in front of him. Yet he saw nothing. The voice continues. "All those years existing on the fringes. Hiding in the shadows!" the voice grew loud as Sendak was swept off his feet by an invisible force that whooshed passed him in what felt like from multiple angles. Once he was upright the room began to fill with a darkness so dark it took up Sendak's entire field of vision. Moments later, breaks in the darkness appear. These breaks are filled with dim light and mirror images of Sendak himself. Multiples of him standing around him, quiet, staring, & motionless. "Enough of this," Sendak said, as he began to speak to the forces unseen around him. As the darkness lifted, and the sounds of the world returned, The Monks Of Ilmater appeared before him. After some heavy thoughts and questions were spoken aloud, Sendak learned that he is now able to be one with the shadows in his Monk abilities. He left the temple guided with simple instruction. Practice. Learn. Use. He felt empowered by this as he made his way back into the city to meet with his friends.
More often than not, when someone doesn't show up to work after a pre-decided number of days, it is determined by policy that they are no longer a fit for the company and the employment, whether it be contract, full-time or on loan, is terminated. Surely it was written out somewhere in the fine print of any employment contract issued by most establishments in the city. Including the all-important TTFI. AKA Tethyr Trade Financing & Insurance. Otherwise known around town as 'the tax office'. Alystn believed this employment policy to be in place as he stood at his desk looking at a face that wasn't his. There in his work chair sat a small man, dressed the part, feverishly shuffling and stumbling through stacks of documents and folders. Stewart was his name. Beads of sweat were running down his temples, and already some pooled in the underarms of his freshly-pressed work shirt. It was clear by his body language and hand movements that he was not trained for this work, & that he was deeply struggling with the Three Baskets system. Alystn then heard the all-familiar voice of his supervisor, Mr. Reefo ring out from down the hall. Except this time, it sounded a bit louder than normal. "SUNFIRE!! My office. Now!"
Alystn and his buds make their way down the hall to Mr. Reefo's office. His secretary just outside his main office, looks up as she sees Alystn in front of her. "He's expecting you," she says sheepishly as she pulls a lever under her desk, and the doors to the big guy's office slide open away from each other on wooden tracks. Alystn and his buds enter the office. It is a large space, hollowed out of the building into a cylindrical design. Bookshelves, a liquor cabinet on wheels, artwork on the walls, a nice view of the city, and there at a grand wellbark wooden desk in a majestic chair, sits Mr. Reefo. Alystn's supervisor at TTFI…
Mr. Reefo, TTFI Supervisor
Reefo was a tired and over-worked Phaskolar. Just like Alystn working for him, Mr. Reefo worked for someone too. And that someone, a high ranking TTFI executive, wasn't too pleased about Alystn Sunfire, TTFI's 'Intern Of The Month' for four months in a row, just taking off and never returning. So they expected an answer. And fast. The first response Reefo came up with was to hire Stewart. "Its just the Three Baskets system. Couldn't be that hard." he thought as he hired the first person he read about in the current job candidate entries pile. Well that proved to be wrong very quickly. This led to the conversation going on between Reefo and the party here and now. And maybe even some of Mr. Reefo's own exasperations made it out of his mind through his body language, his speech, and demeanor. Alystn spoke from the heart. He told his former boss he has answered a higher calling. And it currently has led him, and his new friends, to now be in the service of the Royal Pair themselves! Of course Mr. Reefo was happy for the Half-Elf. He had to put on the "corpo showing" to make things look good in case someone higher up ever inquired into what exactly happened with Alystn when he did return. And Reefo did have a nosy assistant. Regardless, Mr. Reefo embraced his former employee, wished his new friends success, and even made sure Alystn knew if he ever wanted to come back, Stewart could be moved to the basement.
Next on the party to-do list, was figuring out what exact kind of wealth they were holding in these old coins they found down in the Darromar Dungeon. They would need a historian at minimum. And what do you know? Darromar still has one! High up in a tower house on the fringes of the Royal District, just shy of the city walls, sits Darromar's House Of History. One of the original establishments in the city, it is now not much more than a storage facility for official city recordkeeping and the like. Funding over the years has dwindled for the establishment's main purpose, yet its upkeep is held in place by one woman, The Lady Liriel. She being touted as Darromar's truest source of history of The Realms. Upon the party's arrival to the House, it is clear not much in terms of maintenance is part of the upkeep. There are tons of stacks of books, shelving units filled beyond capacity of documents and scrolls. There are occasional pieces of furniture scattered about, all of which seem like they've not been used in years. Mice run freely around the place, skittering here and there. There are makeshift supports posted where the windows once were, yet to be replaced after the attack. Most noticeably there is a large crack across the ceiling, stretching from one side to the other. Powdery bits of it's contents falling occasionally, kicking up the immense amounts of dust in the area. No doubt a scar of the Wyrm's attack.
"Careful where you step my dears," a voice rings out. It is such a gentle and soothing voice. The party follow it to see upon one of the wall ladders, an Elven woman climbing down to greet them.
The Lady Liriel, Darromar's resident historian
While the party was getting a terrific history lesson about the ancient Elven empire once known as Miyeritar from circa -18,000DR (origination of the priceless gold coins and the three tribal leaders whose faces adorned them) the resident mice of the house were really interested in Maiya. So much so that she felt a newly found urge to...speak to them? While The Lady Liriel was going on and on and on, Maiya found a comfy spot on the floor and closed her eyes, focusing on her inner well. Within what felt like moments, she shockingly began communicating with the mice! Clear as day their conversation was. Sendak happened to catch a glimpse of what was goin on and, again shockingly to Maiya, the Goliath reached into his jacket's inner pockets and produced a mouse! This was Moosh, Sendak's little buddy that has been with him for some time now. As soon as Moosh's tiny toes touched the floor, Maiya's new friends immediately ran over to Moosh. And for reasons yet to be known, they all bowed to Moosh. And all Maiya could get from her new friends about this behavior was "Moosh is a special mouse." So now Maiya can speak to animals, and Sendak has been carrying one along this whole time...
After getting a finder's fee from The Lady Liriel for surrendering to Darromar's House of History such a terrific archaeological find, the party had some(current) extra funds now to go spend. Which reminded them they still have that gold amulet they found in the city dungeon. Was it worth scraps? A king's ransom?! They were very eager to find out. So they asked around and were guided, for this particular item, to Ruby's Thingies, a premier jeweler in the Commerce District.
Ms. Ruby, Darromoar's best-known premier jeweler
Ahh, Ruby's. What a fantastical place. The glimmering and shining coming from the wares in this multilevel shop could blind you if you aren't careful how you observe your surroundings. One could have a really good time shopping here. And all in the safest environment possible. Guards posted outside the entrances. Self-defense systems vaguely yet aptly advertised throughout the interior. All to allow a fine shopping experience in the shiniest place in the district. There was a rather long line forming of customers to pay out for items. "But that's not why you're here, is it my dearies?" A small voice bellowed out nearby. The party turns to see the lady of the shop, Ms. Ruby herself. She is a Halfling woman. She is colorfully dressed, with a cheerful expression on her face. Oddly, she approaches the party all the while sniffing the air as if she is tracking something unseen to all except to her and her olfactory senses. Ruby approaches Alystn and says, "you have it…yes you do…please…follow me…" as she just starts to walk away. She lead the party to a doorway off the side of the shop, and beyond to a staircase that winds down. This leads down into a workshop of Ms. Ruby's. She asks Alystn to hand her the item she believes them to have. Once the golden amulet is in her hand, she gently places it on a workbench, adorns an apron, and begins to examine it with her loupe. She "hems and haws" and "oohs and ahhs" over it. Then she walks over to another workbench, sliding open a drawer, extracting an exquisite looking hammer. Back at the amulet before her, she gives the head of the hammer a slight kiss and raises it high above her head. As shes about to come down with it, she pauses and puts on a pair of darklenses she gets from her apron. She says "my dearies, you may want to look away for a moment…" and as she says this, to the party's shock, she brings the hammer down with great force upon the amulet which creates a blinding flash as the amulet itself is obliterated into untold pieces. Once they look back and Ms. Ruby takes off her darklenses, there is a small cloud of gold dust flitting away, and left in the amulet's place…is a gem.
You're rather old if you were around the last time one of these was dug up.
A sparkling thing about the size of a human thumb sits on the table. Ms. Ruby's eyes are as wide as Timo's were at the Taphouse except for different reasons. She goes on to explain this is an omlar gem, from deep within the Omlarandin mountain range to the east. Also, that only one, maybe two of these gems are ever mined every couple hundred years. On average! Quite a treasure the party has here that needs safekeeping. Like really good magical safekeeping. Ms. Ruby knowing what she did as she was really good at really magical safekeeping of things, the best approach here would be pure obfuscation. By the time the party is ready to leave on their quest, each of the party members will have a simple silver ring fitted for the finger of their choosing. That of course is what ANYONE ELSE will see, outside of the party members themselves. To them, they will admire their hand as they will be adorned with an exquisite silver ring, inlaid with an equal section of the omlar gem mounted within. After some back and forth with Ms. Ruby, the party thanked her for her service and left her shop and all it's thingies behind.
The last thing to do was gear up for the long trip ahead. From what Odyeus told them, they were looking at about a seventy-mile trip south/southwest into the wilds to get to The Spires Of Mir. So they loaded up on healing potions, rations and the like. Sendak felt with his new powers, he should try and start using a weapon that would match his new style he would be practicing from the shadows. He ended up shopping light crossbows. After getting sold by the salesman over at Belafor's Clang n' Bang weapon shop, Sendak ended up with a light crossbow. Of course not just any light crossbow. These are The Forgotten Realms after all. After taking up the offer to step out back for a few practice shots with the salesman, Sendak learned the metal pieces that helped build the bow were not the only...radiant things about the bow. A particularly special shot landed a bold dead on target, followed by a brilliant flash of light that singed the target as well. Sendak learned today what radiant damage was all about. Inka while shopping for potions, found herself picking up a six-pack of multi-colored potions that were of the "yet to be known" kind. A little randomness to keep things lively!
Once the party left the city stables with their new riding steeds(who walks seventy miles these days?!), they all looked at each other, and then at the exit gates out of Darromar to where the great wilds lay beyond. This was their first time being back out there since they fatefully all landed in this great city. As they gave their Darromar Guard badges a quick shine, their weapons a last check, they rode out of the city. And Darromar watched as it's newest heroes took off to find someone who apparently doesn't want to be found...
FIN
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