So the
weary band of River Voices gathered once again at the Temple Barge and talked
of what to do next, given news from Che'en, Blu, and others. They decided to head into New Pavis to
see what was going on. As they
waited in line to enter the River Gate, they noticed a posted edict ordering
all Storm Bulls and Uroxi to head to the northwest corner of Pavis County to
fight chaos. The force was being led
by Bos Tauros, a Uroxi Storm Khan from Tarsh who wears
an Ear of the Bull and has many loyal followers (including Lunar officials,
some say...). Dorgon was stopped at
the gate and ordered to wait for the next group to leave town, but Blu cleverly
convinced the gate official that Dorgon was ill and needed treatment at the
Chalana Arroy temple immediately.
The gatesmen sent a 3-man patrol with them to the hospital.
There,
Dori was pleased to be reunited with her husband Caernak despite his withered
arm, and she helped shelter Dorgon for the night, buying some time. Arcus went home to his wife, while the
others went to Gimpy's to find Chendry Lomorri. There he was, and boy was he glad to be
back serving Caernak after his seasons abroad serving Humakt. He pointed out a
drunkard in the corner who the party knew (Falco the Lunar scribe, a naive man
who stayed at Wyrmsjaw briefly) and had very loose lips lately.
Caernak
(and later Blu) sat down with the sad man, who said that he had offended the
wrong people at a Lunar party by decrying their lax policy
on Chaos and other unspeakables, and thus lost his job and was probably fated
to be killed soon. He told them
that Sor-Eel had met eight priests of the White Moon at the gates that day, and
most of Sor-Eel's best men were out of town helping fight the chaos monstrosities
upriver, which sound much worse than Che'en knew of. Caernak tried to get Falco
to leave Gimpy's after he passed out, but a barkeep Morel (one of the 3 gimp
owners) said that he was a valued customer who must stay in his room. Chendry got a room next to Falco and
switched rooms with him to guard; then Ji, Caernak and Blu went to Geo's and
the River Dolphin to try to get info, and didn't find out much except that they
had good friends at the River Dolphin with some useful smuggling contacts. Ji met an odd guy named Fendulf at Geo's
that said he was looking for a Tarshite kinsman named Nolantor, who was tall,
grey, and missing his little finger from his right hand.
The
party learned the next morning that a full lunar patrol (14 men!) came in the
night and took Falco away. Darn.
Meanwhile, Arcus went to talk to Haloric with Ji, and didn't get much
info but got healing. Blu sent Ji and Arcus to the Sunny side of the Farmers
Market to talk with a Templar named Godirr Goldtip, who brusquely said he knew nothing
and was busy with guard duty there and at the nomad market in Badside that
night. Hmm, what's going on? Arcus was mad at Blu for wasting
his time. The party bribed a Lunar official at the River Gate to let Dorgon leave town
with the River Voices, but he warned you never to pass a Lunar checkpoint while
the Storm Bull Edict was in effect.
The band gathered again at the Temple Barge to plan. Ji and Dorgon rode off for Pairing Stone
to see Elohwyn and others. Blu and Caernak
and Chendry canvassed the town looking for clues while Arcus rested his
regrowing leg (Caernak was worried about his regrowing arm, too). They found Fengulf at Rowdy Djo Lo's and
convinced him that they might be able to find Nolantor, then took him to the
River Dolphin, where Blu and Caernak noticed an odd spirit inside Fengulf's gut. When they pointed it out he got very
frightened and they got a private room so Blu could exorcise it, which he
did. It was a broo spawn! Fengulf explained that he was
blackmailed into being a Lunar spy for the mysterious
robed priests, led by a powerful man named Ronan The Prosecutor who searched
for this Nolantor character. Fengulf's family in Tarsh was threatened, he was
impregnated by chaos in a Lunar ceremony, and he
needed to flee town. Yikes! Hriss and Bro, the proprietors, agreed
to try to sneak him under the wall to the river that night. You left them; Chendry went to do
weapon-buying errands and Caernak+Blu went to the Real City. There, they found that Bendrath was
unavailable. Caernak stayed the
night with Groloday whereas Blu ran to the Flintnail Inn at the Flintnail
temple across the Rubble, for some odd reason. Groloday revealed to Caernak that night
that he was part of an "organization" that wanted to work with the
River Voices on this recent issue, and later told him that he knew everything
that had happened!
Next
morning, Caernak learned that Fengulf had been captured by the Lunars, and the
party regrouped again at the Temple Barge to plan the next move. Groloday was with them and said that
(once he was safely out of town in Badside on guard duty) Godirr Goldtip told
them that Nolantor had long since passed through the Pavis area to the Sun Dome
Temple, where a man named Gralon had taken sanctuary some time before. Gralon apparently matches the
description of an evil man who killed a Lhankor Mhy sage in Dragon Pass and
stole a powerful spirit-controling crystal from him. But there is a ton of conflicting information
from all of these rumors collected by you and whomever Groloday works with:
what's the real deal with Bos Tauros, Fengulf, Falco, Ronan the Prosecutor,
Nolantor/Gralon, etc.? Yow,
complicated.
Groloday
invited any of the River Voices that could help in Sun County to unravel this
mystery, and offered help getting to safety. But the issue is very urgent, he
insisted without giving many details, and you needed to leave immediately. Ji and Dorgon are still out of town, hopefully
due back soon. Caernak and Arcus
are healing but could move, with their families. Arcus wants to leave immediately and may
already be gone before meeting Groloday.
Srussut has returned safely now.
Blu and Chendry and Groloday are fine. No word from Pachala, Chingua, or Tison.