“Penny” & “Morgan”
As Penny, the real Penny enters the backstage room, the other “Penny” turns around, and starts running towards her. In a panic, Penny turns herself invisible, and jumps to the side. “Penny” calls out to her, saying she needs to come back, as she can’t lose her again. In a voice Penny recognizes. She turns herself visible again, and asks “...Trixie?” Trixie takes off her hat of disguise, and runs to Penny, giving her a long and longing hug. Apparently she has been looking for her ever since she left the Emerald Earth Sanctuary, and when she heard Morgan went underground, she hired a musician called Ranfrey, put on a disguise and toured the countryside as Bows’n’Roses, hoping to draw out either Penny or Morgan. Trixie, overjoyed at finding her friend, asks her to tell her all about her adventures.
Meanwhile, the rest of the party, having left the guard barracks, discuss where to go first. They talk about the money that is being sent their way from Gundren, catching a few looks from people walking past. They realize that some are more… suspicious than others, and some of them do smell really bad. They send Penny a message, telling her to meet them at the Tempervale Bank. She and Trixie head out, meeting them there, and she introduces her friend to the rest of the group. Trixie helpfully marks down where Penny is from on their map, since Penny didn’t know exactly where it was.
Making a Withdrawal
In the bank, which is immaculate and clean, so clean you can see your reflection in the floor, they go to one of the tellers, asking about a transfer. The teller, a halfling woman, notices the names, and goes to the back to fetch the manager. She leads them into her office, where they see that her name is Kali Merit. The woman the barmaid warned them about last night. Kali asks the party about the whereabouts of Demetrius, as the transfer specifies 6 people, with only five present. They tell her he’s on a personal assignment to the west. She also asks where they are planning to go, and how long they plan to stay in Tempervale, to which the party replies that they either plan to head to Ravenforge or south to Spiral Woods, but should be in town for at least a week. Satisfied with their responses, she goes to the vault to fetch their prize. Over 80 platinum pieces and change. Willowbark is fascinated by Kali’s office, especially her many translucent orbs with shimmering movements in them, sitting in a display case. When asked about them, she tells them it’s a collection from her travels, but doesn’t elaborate further.
Back out to the foyer, Trixie is waiting for the party to finish, and as they exit the bank, she tells the party that she will leave 5 tickets for them, if they want to come see the show later that night. The party thanks her, and they split with Trixie, as she has to rehearse for the evening.
Lighting the Lone Candle
The party heads south-east towards the morgue, stopping by the Great Fountain Square. There are, as always, a lot of booths around with many different items, both food, samples, souvenirs from the city and other collectibles. The party takes note of a lone tabaxi girl sitting with her wares in a corner of the square, so Penny, Willowbark and Granny go to check out what she has to offer. She introduces herself as Lone Candle, and gives them the rundown of what she has. A myriad of items, all made by herself, but the ones who peak the partys interest is a Chest of Preserving, a clearly homemade magic item, but one that definitely works. Also, 3 pairs of Earring of Message. The party decides to buy all three of them, and the chest, while Kal gives Lone Candle her earring and asks if she can enchant another Earring of Message from it. Lone Candle says it will take a week, but she thinks she can do it. Penny also trades some earrings for the Wand of Smiles that she has. She thanks the party for all their patronage, and tells them more about her situation. She lives in a homeless shelter down the road, and is trying to save up enough money to buy her own place so she can get better at enchanting and have a store, just like the others in the city, but has been having troubles with random gang members assaulting her and taking some of her profits. The party tells her she can come with them when they travel west, as she expresses an interest in going that way.
In the meantime, Theren have been looking around for a particular item. He notices a symbol on one of the shops, written in thieves’ cant, so he enters it, and convinces the shopkeeper, a shady half-orc, that he isn’t one of the city guards, so sells him the item he is looking for. For a marked up price. He happily returns to the rest of the party later, as they depart the square, going to the morgue.
Dead Men Might Leave Clues
Reaching the morgue, they find it to double as a temple of Mova. As they enter and pay their respect to the goddess-statue of Mova, they are greeted by a woman who asks them what she can help them with. They tell her that they have been sent by Kirrus Mericious, and is hoping to examine the body that has been found. Hazel, the woman, leads them to the back, where there are several stone slabs, but only one has a body on it. Missing its jaw, but also most of its other limbs, as well as being almost torn open by the belly. The party all examine the body, and deduce that the jaw was ripped off while he was still alive, but the other injuries most likely happened after he was disposed of. They also find a puncture wound on the neck, with distinct markings of what appear to be a poison entering the bloodstream…
The Greatest Show
Back at the Transcendence Theater, they pick up their tickets to watch the show. It is packed full, with a lively audience really engaged in the act. Even though it is a short show, only 45 minutes, they play amazingly well, and put on one hell of a stage show, with Trixie at one point hanging in a rope over the audience, whilst playing her flute. Ranfrey is flirting with the ladies in the front, and at the end, the audience moves on east to the nearest tavern to keep drinking. The party goes backstage to talk to Trixie about the future. Penny and Trixie come to an agreement that Trixie can keep parading as Penny until she finds Morgan again. She makes good money and has a lot of fun doing it, so she doesn’t mind. Maybe they can form a band together when the time comes. Willowbark tastes some of Ranfreys wine, but finds it repulsive, even more so than the wine she tasted before. They spend the rest of the evening just hanging around with Trixie and Ranfrey, waiting to go on the stakeout. Theren uses his disguise kit on Kal, changing how she looks, as she usually sticks out. The party thinks he must have sisters, considering his skill with the makeup.
As they leave to try to find the kidnappers the party decide that they should try to get kidnapped themselves, hoping to lure the kidnappers to them so they can be taken to their base of operations. Kal and Theren is to act as bait, whilst Willowbark sits in Kals pocket as a rat, with Penny and Granny staying nearby, hidden from view. They take a few nights doing this, but for the first five nights, nothing happens, and nobody is kidnapped.
O Morgan, Morgan, Wherefore Art Thou Morgan?
The next day, Kal tries to send a message to the real Morgan, hoping to get a hint to where he is. The first time she knows the spell has reached its target, but gets no response. The next day, she tries telling him to cough if he is unable to respond and if he needs help. Still no response. Penny decides that she is desperate to find what happened to her mentor, and so takes the scroll of Scrying from the bag, and opens it, hoping to find a clue to his whereabouts. The scroll, even with her newfound reading skills, turns out to be too complex for her, and the scroll is sadly wasted and disappears. Penny is crushed by this, and asks her patron if he knows where Morgan is. “I know exactly where he is..” the creepy voice responds. Penny demands loudly that he tells her, to which he responds “my dear, I have given you everything you need to find him…”. Penny realizes what she must do.
Over the next few days, Willowbark and Kal research the corruption in the forest and the god Shehemis, as they keep finding cards with his symbol on it. Theren does his best to find out who the gang members harassing Lone Candle are, and finds that there are several gangs in the city, the Warthogs, the Royal Badgers, the Sewer Hounds, but there doesn’t seem to be one gang picking on her. She just seems to be a common target considering her status. He hires a group of street urchins to keep lookout and report to him if they see her being harassed, which they do over the week, but nothing is taken from her as she has made little profit. Penny in the meantime spends time with Trixie, and helps Lone Candle get a sale by playing some music promoting her business. Granny in the meantime has paid to use a forge at a blacksmith, keeping up her work on the armor.
At the weekend, the harvest festival comes to town, a two day event, where the party uses their newly bought Chest of Preserving, filling it up with loads of delicious food that is hard to find on the road by foraging, even after Willowbark protests that she can find most of the stuff they have bought.
So Long, And Thanks For All The Entertainment
Theren has woken up that day, with hair covering all of his body. He shaves it off, most of it at least, and at breakfast, he draws two cards from the deck. One marked “liar”, and another one giving him a chest with 10000 counterfeit gold pieces, with the image of a jester on them. The party keeps this, thinking it may come in handy. They decide to draw the rest of the four cards in one of their rooms, hoping to be done with the curse. They draw some good cards, some bad, one leading to an explosion causing the room to catch fire, but as the last card is drawn, and Theren starts to wail like a baby, a pair of Gloves of Thievery appears in the box, along with a note thanking the party for the entertainment, signed with “S''. The party quickly realizes that Shehemis is most likely behind it. Theren happily dons the gloves.
Having finished their research in the library, Willowbark didn’t find much of value, other than the fact that the forest that has been corrupted needs to be burned down to finally cleanse it, while Kal learns that Shehemis is a trickster god, who most likely has taken steps to ensure the party finds these cards. It’s no mere coincidence. The cards are also most likely part of a set, and if they are from Shehemis, they are most likely chaotic in nature. They tell the rest of the party this. Theren tries to identify the tarot cards they have found, but finds that even though they are magical, he is unable to deduce what their function is, as they feel incomplete.
From Rags to Riches
Kal realizes that the party might need some new clothes, so they decide to go to a clothing shop they saw earlier called "From Rags to Riches". Within, a goblin man called Stagz, along with his siblings, helpfully, although condescendingly, measures up Willowbark and Penny, in hopes of getting some formal clothes in case they should ever need it. Kal simply asks for a vestment to carry over her armor, in the design of the symbol of Udall, which can be arranged. Granny doesn't really need any clothes as she has her shell, and Theren already have any clothing he ever needs, thanks to his new armor. Stagz tells the party that the clothes should be completed within a day.
Springing the Trap
That night, they finally have a breakthrough. As the party set up their usual honeypot, as a city guard passes by and greets them, Willowrat notices the smell that they smelled earlier from the shady looking people in the street, and desperately tries to warn Kal. She however has already noticed that three people have come out of one of the maintenance-hatches that leads into the sewers, and they happily decide that they have found their next victims. They quickly shoot their crossbows at Kal and Theren, and Kal falls unconscious, whilst Theren manages to resist it, but feels the poison enter him, and pretends to fall unconscious as well. The group grabs the pair, and ventures into the sewers, with Granny casting Hunters Mark on Kal to help track them. They wait a few moments, and then open the hatch with brute force, following the group.
They walk for a while, over 20 minutes, taking turns left and right, going deep into the sewers, so deep that they reach the old city that has been built over throughout the centuries. Granny manages to track them well enough that they can barely see them enter what appears to be an abandoned building that has been rebuilt, with most of the buildings around it being destroyed, with only the facade remaining.
Inside the building, Theren can see four more people sitting around a table playing cards. And a lot of blood on the floor, as well as on the outside before he was taken in. The thugs put Theren and Kal on the floor, and try to search their pockets. Theren has hidden his ring well enough that the thugs can’t find it, but they quickly notice Willowrat hiding in Kals pocket. Willowrat bites the thug on his finger, and tries to escape, much to the thugs surprise, so the thug tries to kill the rat in return. As he stomps on it, Willowbark quickly returns to her regular form, with the whole gang looking shocked at the now suddenly appearing firbolg in their midst. Willowbark quickly uses a lesser restoration on Kal to bring her out of her sleep, as the gang rises from their chairs, ready to attack, with Granny and Penny waiting just outside the door…