So, apologies for the straightforward litany here. I'm not feeling my best and don't really have the energy to make a witty, fantastical, intriguing, in-character diary right now. Instead, straight-up info.***
Errands: the gems we collected from Rhino Goblins have been appraised and found to worth Quite A Lot. Two in particular are worth 450-500 gold each, so we were thinking we'd sell one to get Barg that +4 mighty composite longbow he keeps lingering over in that bowyer's window display downtown.
Ceder bought some more trail rations. We discussed a riding dog, or even the possibility of getting all of us mounted[1], but then sort of abandoned the idea. We probably don't *quite* have the money right now.
Kanton went and talked to the Druids about the Illendi info we found, and the history of the Felderoak that Cor and Lucan got from Library Man. On his way back, he realized he was being followed; he managed to lose the follower in the woods. Lucan announced that the description matched the goateed man in the tavern who'd offered stuff in exchange for information about gates. Consensus has been that Lucan shouldn't go back to the guy and report anything, so he didn't.
That afternoon, a big raven showed up at Kanton's place, messenger of Teren's, complaining about some annoying "big bird" nearby, and announcing that he (Teren) was sending a yearling druid to hang out with us. We shrugged collectively in a "Not more fucking druids, but we need all the help we can get" kind of way.
Ceder and Lucan talked a bit about what they agree is an increasing need for a fortified, safe home base from which to launch our investigations, as Kanton's fold-out sofabed has this very uncomfortable bar in the middle. There was some musing about taking out and then taking over one of the Sentinels.
That evening our mysterious yearling druid arrived, a 4th-level fellow named Cygwin[2]. There were introductions all around. The raven was with him, and complained again about "big bird" with batlike wings hanging around. Images from the mural fresh in our minds, we went to investigate.
We were able to pinpoint the mysterious bat-winged-bird's location to a particular tree in a particular clearing. Kanton sent up a Detect Magic and we got a dweomer but -- surprise, surprise -- no visible bird. Ceder sent an Unseen Servant up the tree with a Lighted rock -- no dice. Cygwin proved himself immediately useful by casting Faerie Fire on the general area of the Detect Magic dweomer, and our mysterious bat-winged guy was revealed as...the goateed guy from the tavern. With wings.[3]
So, goateed guy is an Anghrel[4]. There was much tension at the beginning, to the tune of:
Anghrel: Why didn't you come talk to me at the tavern? Lucan: Why should we trust you? Anghrel: We had a deal! Lucan: We had no deal! Anghrel: What did you find out about gates? Kanton: Get stuffed! Anghrel: Your mom! Cor: I know you are, but what am I?
and so forth. Finally Lucan said, Okay, look, tit-for-tat, we'll ask you a question and then you ask us a question, and that was okay, so we did that for a while, and then everybody calmed down enough that we just shared information.
What we told him:
We'd encountered Siarrans; they'd been militant and violent; they'd kidnapped a friend of ours and we went to get her back. And killed Senet. And burned down the tower. We believed there were red dragons in Caer Anorach, and that that was what Senet was doing there. We did *NOT* tell him about Siarrah. We were wary of Illendi, for obvious reasons. We did find gates. We found a Sianghrel which seemed to activate the gates; we showed it to him and he confirmed. We found a giant mural with the history of the Illendi and a spell that continued to draw on the Anghrel level. Some crazy shit has come through the gates, and there was red grass on the other side of one (he said, "Then the gates are truly broken" in response to that). We only seek to protect Correllendor. We'd like to visit the Siarran settlement outside Telperest.What he told us:
There are a bunch of small Illendi settlements here and there in Correllendor. His group is just investigating the gates, in a "what happened to them, do they still work," kind of way, rather than a "let's bring the armies of the West through immediately" kind of way. They are to dragons as the Correllendi are to their Avatars: dragons are mythic, ancient, powerful to them. They are only Anghrel and Siarrans; they haven't found any Dondar. There doesn't seem to be any clear united mission -- we kept asking whether their plans were resettlement, invasion, etc. and the answer seemed to be that various Illendi had various ideas about what they wanted to do. They are investigating Correllendor because it used to be one arm of their holdings, and the Illendi of Correllendor just dropped out of communication completely at some point and were lost. They are looking for the legendary Nothoreadhel, and they don't have any better idea about where it is than we do. They came to Correllendor by boat this time. Their own lands are being ravaged by wars with humans and elves. Siarrans are known for disdaining humans. He's considering writing us a note authorizing us to visit the Siarran settlements near Telperest. The towers of Caer Anorach were, as we suspected, guard towers for what is probably a Sentinel.Am I forgetting anything? :)
Anyway, that was about it. The Faerie Fire wore off and he vanished. We went back to Kanton's place, talking about what we wanted to do next. Which is probably somthing we sohuld try to do in email before Tuesday: do we still want to go investigate the Siarran settlement? Or do we want to track down a Sentinel? Or what?
Josh
[1]If we ate too much first, we could be stuffed and mounted. [2]Pause for laughter. [3]He would've gotten away with it too, if it weren't for those meddling druids. [4]I have no idea how to spell that word, but you know, the angel guys from the mural.