The Hungry Sky, Chapter Two

In Which

Bariarti Trusts to Fate ⁂ Bork Flirts with the Ambassador ⁂ Cyclopes go “Click" ⁂ A Toad is Forced to Improvise ⁂ Bork Terrifies Prisoners ⁂ Housekeepers Should be Tipped ⁂ Priorities are Unusual

Aster casually looks around the inn's dining room as she gathers her second helping of food. She notes that Elgin has apparently had too much beer, and is now drunkenly airing his woes to Hickory, who listens with apparently-genuine sympathy; from what she can gather, Elgin's brother Percival has lost his mind, and Elgin had to have him committed. (The Malacaster Home for the Mad, which is just a little ways outside town, provides the best care for such people money can buy.) A couple tables over, Fritha has apparently not had enough beer, as Brother Saros is enthusiastically trying to engage her in conversation about her travels, much to her annoyance. 

Bariarti decides to exercise his paladin abilities¹. He fires off a detect good, and white auras glow into being around Aster, Elgin, and Hickory. Bariarti, deciding to trust in fate, figures he should keep an eye on the good-aligned NPCs; if he follows them, and helps them if they get into trouble, odds are good he'll happen to be in the right place at the right time.² Bariarti declares that he will discreetly keep an eye on Elgin and Hickory. [Stealth check: 6]

Aster, looking at the slime trail Bariarti leaves on the floor behind him, notes that they had “better tip the staff". She also heads over to Hickory, who asks her why her companion is looming and leering in such a strange way. 

Bariarti: Just keeping you out of trouble.
Hickory: Why does he think I'm getting into trouble?
Aster: I don't know, I just met him.
Bariarti: Just making sure.
Hickory: Your friend is freaking me out a little bit.
Aster: Ah, well... [abruptly changing the subject] anyhow, how's business?
Hickory: It's... it's a living.
Aster: Understood. Not always easy, I know. By the way, are you happening to go toward Trisnedort³?

Hickory is indeed headed in that general direction in the near future, and Aster asks him to carry a note to her father to let him know she's okay. She tips Hickory a silver piece, and quickly scribbles down a note for him to carry.

Meanwhile, Bork and Fluryka have arrived at the Leering Lamprey. It's essentially what you'd expect from a dockside tavern; it's kind of a dive, but with strong beer and decent food. Most of the patrons are goblins, with the occasional humanoid mixed in. A kobold is strumming a lute in the corner, singing for tips. Bork, taking advantage of the fact that she's basically a giant compared to the other patrons, secures a table for herself and the ambassador, then heads over to talk to the bartender. Some fast talking, a trustworthy sharp-toothed smile, and a high Bluff check convinces him to send her bill to the Order of the Stagnant Lake; she returns to the table with two mugs of the tavern's finest beer.

Bork: So, tell me about yourself. Other than digging up random stuff, what does your town do?
Fluryka: Right now, everything's kind of on hold, what with the plague.
Bork: Plague? I don't think I've heard about that.
Fluryka: I did mention it to you in the inn shortly before we walked over here.
Bork: I'm sorry -- your beautiful eyes distracted me.
Fluryka: [flustered] I'm not sure what to do with that -- you're, like, four times my size, and I'm not sure I'm into that.
Bork: Just drink your beer.

Some conversation passes, in which Fluryka tells Bork about the plague in her hometown of Fricanoroi, which struck seemingly out of nowhere and is characterized by horrible black lesions on the skin. Bork offers her sympathies. Eventually, the conversation is redirected.

Bork: So, these magic items. I was wondering if I could take a look at them. I'm not a mage, but I know a thing or two about magic objects.

Fluryka reaches into a pouch at her belt and produces a pair of small statues. They are carved from black stone, and resemble cyclopes seated in crude thrones. Bork fiddles with them a bit, but without anything to go on, her Use Magic Device check isn't much use. She presses them together, and for a second, she is pleasantly surprised by a soft click noise -- then nothing happens, and she realizes that that was just the sound of two small pieces of stone colliding. The only thing she notices that would indicate that these items are anything other than completely mundane statues is that neither of them casts a shadow. Eventually, she hands them back, and the pair converse some more before returning to the inn.

Bork is half-heartedly considering making forgeries of the statues and stealing the genuine article, but the business with the shadows would be tough to fake. She, Aster, and Bariarti retire to their rooms, and try to get a good night's sleep. Maybe tomorrow it will be clearer what they're supposed to do.

NPC Interlude: Locusts-Speak-in-the-Ancient-Ear

In the dead of night, four figures quietly approach the Exarch's Arms. Some hours previous, word had reached them about the current patrons, and it was decided that they should intervene. It was not yet the time to act openly, but their organization had become quite skilled at operating in the shadows. The higher echelons were still discussing the best approach for some of the more outré information that had reached them, but it had taken only a few minutes to decide how to deal with a certain nosy human.

Two of the creeping figures are toad-like bipeds, of a species wholly unknown to the people of Stagnant Lake. One of them wears fine leather armor, and gazes around with an air of command: this is The-Laws-are-as-Gossamer, the expedition's leader. The other wears thick cloth robes covered in painted runes: this is Locusts-Speak-in-the-Ancient-Ear, providing spellcasting support. The other two figures, who move with an effortless silent grace and leave no footprints where they step, are kech -- a humanoid species covered in long, lank hair like a sloth's. Their names are Ur-Nungal and Ipqatum; they are the muscle.

A fine figure of a frog. (Image from Monsters of Faerun.)
I have no images of kech; not only are they fairly obscure creatures, but I slightly reskinned them in my world. They're supposed to be essentially bald, with leaf-like patterns on their skin; I thought covering them in sloth-like fur was a more evocative look. (An unexpected bonus is that Bork's player is more creeped out by that description⁴.) For whatever reason, none of D-and-D's numerous ape-man species share that appearance, and I have no talent at drawing, so there you go. 

Gossamer turns to Locusts and makes a hand sign that Locusts has come to recognize as indicating his boss's compulsive need to check their preparedness. Locusts pulls back a fold of his robe to show the scroll tubes at his side, then opens a pouch and holds up a ring. Taken with a brief flash of impish petulance, he flips the ring through the air towards Gossamer, who catches it and glares before slipping it on his finger. Gossamer makes another gesture -- get on with it -- and Locusts whispers the incantation of spider climb over Gossamer and then over himself. The kech don't need it; they can scale the sides of a building as quick as Locusts can walk across a flat plain. The only reason the toad-things need to even accompany them is to supervise; the same neurological quirks that make the kech unwaveringly loyal also impede their ability to improvise if something goes wrong. (And kech tend to be lousy spellcasters, possibly for the same reason.)

The four scale the side of the building in complete silence, until they reach a certain second-story window. Another whispered incantation -- knock -- causes the simple hook-and-eye lock on the inside of the shutters to unlatch itself, and Ur-Nungal carefully opens the shutters, watchful for the slightest squeak of the hinges. Ipqatum climbs through the window with preternatural grace, followed by Gossamer -- who moves like a giant bipedal frog, but still manages to be quiet. Ur-Nungal slips in, and Gossamer looks significantly at Locusts. 

Drat, Locusts thinks. He had hoped that they'd let him stay outside -- after all, they'd only need spellcasting support on the inside if something went terribly wrong -- but such was not to be. He climbs through the window with exaggerated care, as his training in stealth is not nearly so thorough as that of the others. As his feet reach the floor, Ipqatum creeps over to the bed, in which their target lies sleeping. He extends one finger -- the kech, with their sharp claws, have no need of knives for this sort of work -- and is surprised when the target, apparently only feigning sleep, grabs his wrist and pulls her own knife from under her pillow. What kind of human sleeps with a knife under her pillow? Locusts thinks to himself, his training momentarily deserting him in a second of baffled shock.

Ur-Nungal rushes to assist, the target swings her knife at the intruders with unexpected skill, Gossamer leaps towards her with his ring hand extended, and Locusts thinks something extremely rude. It looks like they're going to have to improvise after all.

⁂

Across the hall, Bork⁵ jerks awake at the sound of shouting. Screaming. Violence. She grabs her weapon and rushes across the hall, bursting into the room that is the source of the noise. For an instant, everyone freezes and stares at the intruder, and Bork finds herself looking at a strange tableau. Fritha Threefingers is standing on the bed, in disheveled nightclothes, brandishing a large hunting knife. Three humanoid creatures covered in long, filthy hair are beside the bed, facing her down. In the corner nearest them, a toad-like biped in leather armor is gasping out its last breaths, clutching at a slit throat. Several feet back from the melee, a second toad-man is staring at her in surprise.

Bork: What the fuck?
Toad: This, um, doesn't concern you.
Bork: Tell me what you're doing or I kill you.
Toad: Um, well, the thing is... it's part of my religion?

Bork is not open to this approach, and goes to stab the nearest kech. She misses horribly -- luckily, she doesn't confirm her critical fumble -- and yells loud enough to wake the others. The toad, apparently panicking, turns invisible.

The other members of the party arrive, but not in time to save Bork from getting flanked by kech and taking a critical hit. Bariarti and Aster arrive in the doorway, and Aster starts singing to inspire courage.

Locusts, seeing the gnoll arrive not only with backup, but with backup that consists of some sort of enormous snail monster, decides that it's time for him to be somewhere else. After casting his invisibility, he creeps carefully back to the window -- and stares in horror. It's one of those things, you know? One of those little motions that gets drilled into you when you're learning how to be part of society. Something that a civilized individual is meant to do without even thinking about it. Locusts had been the last through the window -- so he closed the shutters behind him.

Bariarti shoots at the general area where the invisible toad is located, and manages to beat the miss chance. There is a croaking cry of pain. One of the kech tries to escape, but Bork gets a critical hit on her attack of opportunity, and severs its hand at the wrist; it rapidly bleeds out. Aster manages to hit the surviving kech with her crossbow, and Bork decides to charge towards the window in the hopes of tackling the toad, but instead runs face-first into the wall. Clutching her bleeding snout, she yells, "This is your last chance to surrender," and for some reason that actually works [Intimidate: 23]. The kech puts his hands up in apparent surrender. The toad fumbles a Stealth check, and trips over a piece of furniture while trying to dive under the bed. He shimmers into visibility with his hands up, fully aware that he's otherwise screwed.

Bork decides to take the direct approach. The following is the excuse for an interrogation that follows Bork making some more Intimidate rolls, and everyone else being mildly distracted by trivia. The toad seems to have decided to cooperate politely, to a certain extent. The kech has little to say.

Bork: Tell us what you want, or I will murder you.
Toad: That seems extreme.
Bork: That's extreme, after I cut your friend's hand off?
Toad: Point.
Aster: [distracted by other priorities] Look at all the blood -- we really should tip the housekeeper.
Kech: You should, you know.
Bork: [glaring at the toad] I think you should tip the housekeeper.
Toad: Look, I don't carry any of your currency with me.
Bork: Got anything valuable?
Toad: No?
Aster: Where are you from?
Toad: You wouldn't have heard of it.
Aster: Try me.
Toad: All right, I'm from [prolonged, modulated croaking noise]. I don't believe it has a name in your tongue.

Aster rolls an 8 on Knowledge (geography). Fritha Threefingers continues watching with interest, cleaning her knife and adjusting her disheveled nightclothes, but not intervening. Bork decides to get things back on track.

Bork: Why are you here?
Toad: [pause to weigh the dangers of cooperation] I was supposed to replace her. [indicates Threefingers]Bork: Like kill her and wear her skin? That's fucked up.
Toad: No, that's barbaric. I was going to use this ring. 

The toad-creature picks up a ring from the floor nearby -- it does look like it would fit his strange, webbed fingers.

Bork: That's still fucked up.
Toad: At least I didn't come up with wearing her skin.
Bork: You can't take over people's lives! Why were you going to take over Threefingers's life?
Toad: I don't make the rules.
Bork: Why wouldn't you pick someone with five fingers?
Toad: That's an... interesting point. Look, I'm just following orders here.
Bork: From who?
Toad: From... my boss.
Aster: Who is...?
Toad: Also not a name you would recognize.
Bork: Why Threefingers?
Toad: Look, I'm not privy to the grand plan here.
Bariarti: What were you supposed to do after you replaced her?
Aster: Thank you. Good snail. Sorry, that sounded terribly condescending.
Toad: All I know is that she's investigating something that we would rather not have investigated. Can I go, or is the gnoll going to cut my limbs off?

The party decide to send someone to get the town guard, and let them handle this whole toad business. In the meantime, after a couple questions, Fritha volunteers that she is investigating a ring of slavers up the coast. Aster heads downstairs and runs into Kozzory, the innkeeper. Aster tries to impress upon her how important it is that she get the town guard. Kozzory wants to know why Aster was singing just now, being as it was the middle of the night. Upstairs, Bork and the toad-thing accuse each other of being racist, and Bork intimidates the toad into handing over the ring and a scroll of water breathing, after ascertaining that the two survivors aren't carrying anything else of value.

Upon Aster's return, she and Bork loot the bodies incompetently. [Perception: 5 -- and that was the high roll.] Bariarti abstains from the looting on the grounds of being a paladin. Fritha is then forced to try and discourage the party from following her -- she seems reluctant to have them tagging along, and isn't terribly worried about a recurrence as she “think[s] we showed them what-for."

It's about then that two members of the town guard can be heard coming up the stairs of the inn; to be continued.

---

1. One of the other common-sense changes I made in my campaign world is that paladins don't have to be Lawful Good -- after all, there's really no reason why only the LG gods should be able to have holy warriors. Rather, they follow the same alignment restrictions as clerics; their alignment has to be compatible with their god's. (And they fall if they break their god's code of conduct.) One of the consequences of this is that they don't all have detect evil and smite evil -- they detect and smite an alignment opposed to their god. Bariarti is a paladin of Grandfather Kraken, who is True Neutral, so he got to pick which alignment his powers targeted. Bariarti's player has a tradition of playing unusual characters, so he asked if his detect and smite necessarily had to match. As a result, Bariarti can smite evil, but detect good.
2. “I figure that if the prophecy's legit, it will take care of itself, and whatever I do will turn out to be what needed to be done, so I'm just going to follow anyone who detects as good and see if they need any paladin-ing." -- Bariarti OOC
3. Aster, being familiar with the trade routes and her caravan's habits, figures they're probably going to be in the town of Trisnedort next.
4. 

Bork OOC: Take a mop, dip it in oil, then leave it in a dark, damp corner for a while, and then you have a sloth.

GM: I don't think you'd literally have a sloth -- it would still be just a mop.
Bork OOC: How else do you think sloths are created?

5. Bork got above 20 on her Perception check to be woken by the noise. Aster got a 6, and Bariarti got a 3. The DC was 10.