Invitations

December 19, 2018

The group finishes off the two orcs that were sleeping and searches them.  They pick up some coins.  Brianna and Jander are fine with the group keeping the money.  The group also grabs some of the weapons to sell them later.  They finish their rest and nothing happens for the rest of the night.  In the morning, they reflect on what they have learned and feel a bit more confident in their abilities.  Brianna went to check on snares and brought back food while Jander got the fire stoked and ready to cook.  He's also looking at his books during this time.  Hang wakes up and starts praying.  Jinn looks over his books.  Dorn practices with his sword.  Tyrel plays a tune.  

The group keeps traveling toward Orlbach's tower, talking most of the way.  The group sees the path heading east toward the tower and are surprised when Brianna doesn't move onto it.  They show them the path but Brianna and Jander can't see it.  Jinn and Hang are wondering about this as they can't detect magic or any reason for it.  Jinn is suspicious about these two but they do keep going.  They travel down the path for several hours.  Several of them spot the movement just before some creatures attack.  

Hang moves up to take the brunt of it and use the power of her god but is struck down before that can happen.  Dorn figures out the weakness of the eye and kills one and soon both are dead but a tough fight.  They keep traveling on the road.  When they come around a hill to a grove of trees, Jander and Brianna can see the trail in front of them and looking behind they can see it going back to the road as well.  Jander wants to figure that out and looks over it but can't figure out and soon they keep going.  They do see the tower in the distance but can't make out much detail on it.  When they get closer, they see there is a five hundred foot area around the tower with all sorts of crops.  Jinn recognizes most of them but many are things he hasn't seen.  Oats, wheat, corn, millet, but also grapes, apple trees, lemons trees, orange trees, and more.  They see two people standing among more creatures like the party fought.  The two notices the group, waves, and heads over.  

The two greet the group and he introduces himself as Orlbach.  Jinn asks a question about what the creatures are, and that starts Orlbach on a lecture fascinating Jinn and Jander.  Garvena introduces herself, says that Orlbach may be a while, and takes the rest of the group back toward the tower.  The group marvels at how small the tower and the building are.  The tower extends fifty feet up but is only fifteen feet wide and the cottage next to it is not much bigger.  Garvena shows them several pitchers of liquids and says one is beer, one is mead, one is elven wine and not to try the experiment that Orlbach is doing.  They also have meats and cheeses, some not from this area but most are tasty.  

When Orlbach, Jinn, and Jander all join them, Orlbach does explain a bit about the Heralds, or the herALDs as Tyrel knows them near Silverymoon, and that people can learn about their own ancestry but cannot ask about the current generations or three back.  With humans, that is perhaps a hundred years but for elves or dwarves, that could be a long time indeed.  Orlbach also says that they don't have as much elven or dwarven information as human.  Jander keeps asking questions, almost too curious.  When the group asks about creatures, they offer to help with patrols.  Orlbach and Garvena patrol the North and East and the group checks the South and West.  They find two more of those creatures and this time, Hang is not denied his retributive ability.  Another reveals a new ability attacking the whole group but the group prevails.  They meet back up at the tower.  

When they get back, the group notices that things are cleaned up and a new spread laid out on the table.  They do wonder at the servants that they can't see but when asked about it, Orlbach says he can't reveal all secrets.  They spend an evening talking, Tyrel singing and entertaining, practicing and doing research.  It turns out the tower and building contain more inside than would appear.  The interior contains the same amount of space as a very large, modest Inn.  They rest for the evening.  

In the morning, Orlbach tells the group that he rescinded the invitation to Brianna and Jander.  They pushed the hospitality offered and were sent away.  Further, Orlbach asks them not to extend the invitation again.  Orlbach explained that due to Commander Miller showing them on the map where to go, they could see the trail.  It's why the other two could not see the path.  Hang had asked if Orlbach had anything to help with the heat due to her heavy armor.  He enchanted bracers and thought they would work.  Mostly.  When Hang activates them, the silver snowflakes melt and reform into flames and instead of being cooling, they are hot!  She sees how that could be helpful but not right now!  She removes the bracers.  

After a long day, passing a few patrols and travelers, they arrive back to Daggerford.  They return the horses and head to Lady Luck Tavern to relax.  They relax for the evening although Jinn retires a bit early to learn some spells.  It takes a while and as he completes scribing it into his book, he notices the chill.  It's cold, too cold for Flamerule.  Glancing outside, a thick fog has spread itself around, a figure within, looking up at Jinn.  

Arakus.

300 xp

GM Notes

• This is a bit more compact than I would prefer but that's what happens when I wait too long before writing this up. 
• The main points are here but a few details are missing here and there
• mainly the different foods they got to eat and the crops they saw 
• perhaps a few details around the combats 
• I did enjoy the interactions with Orlbach and Gervena
• A bit of history with the Heralds (or herALDS as they are known near Silverymoon, thanks to Tyrel) and the function they serve. 
• Orlbach couldn't tell secrets but did share some basic information 
• We ended on a fun cliffhanger, with Arakus staring at Jinn. 

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