Part 6: Another Return to Hommlet

Sep 26, 2021 7:04 pm
Official XP and Time Tracker

https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-C_6HSVpB-58/WD50q79XFlI/AAAAAAAABMY/elDIRTkzTCMjvEj_NyrAPxdqNutyzlrhwCLcB/s1600/Hommlet_sketch_blue.jpg

The morning of the 15th of Eleint brings you to a village just getting into the bustle of the day. It’s around 9am and the temperature in the village is somewhere around 55-60°. The air is still but rain has come down hard since the party left the ruins earlier this morning and the square and the roads passing through Hommlet are sloppy and slick with mud and the group is soaked to the bone.
The party knows that there will be a few errands to be run and some special orders ready for pick up in the next few days if they want to wait, but the more that can be taken care of today, the sooner they can head back to that black dungeon below the ruins.
As the party dismounts and begin to walk their mounts to the hitching posts outside the Welcome Wench Inn, all notice that the Man-at-Arms doesn’t follow suit, but breaks off from the group with not so much as a word of goodbye to the others (not that that would surprise anyone), and rides directly for the Trading Post to check in with his employers, presumably.

Likewise, the two merchants that the group rescued give their thanks once again and assure the group that they are in need of securing some horses and traveling gear of their own as soon as possible and intend to set out again for home after a night's rest at the inn. Unless the party has any further use for them, they will take their leave but before they go they promise that when they get home and have another shipment delivered to this area they will be sending a reward to the group to be given to the proprietor of the Welcome Wench for safekeeping.

As Bramblecatch dismounts from Gilly's pony, the gnome walks up to the cleric and pulls her aside. " I want to thank you again," he says to Maloria. "Not only for rescuing me before that dreadful ogre could make a small snack of me, but also for fixing my legs and bringing me here safely." As he releases his grip, Maloria feels something small and round is the palm of her hand. Looking down she sees he's given her a small, simple iron ring. It would probably only fit around one of the dwarf’s stout pinky fingers. "If you ever find yourself in need of aid, show this ring to any gnomes you might find within a hundred miles of here and very likely they will recognise it as a sigil of my warren, and its bearer as a friend and ally." He looks at the merchants walking away. "Unless you have any further immediate needs of me, I should like to be on my way as well. Until we meet again, Bramblecatch is in your debt."
The gnome begins to walk away, thanking each of the others in turn as he passes, and starts heading out of the village to reunite with his people somewhere north.

Selling the small amount of loot the party collected on their last raid of the ruins takes relatively little time. The Village’s jeweller purchases the peridot and amethyst stones from the adventurers directly. The ivory box, unexpectedly, he takes a particular interest in as well. When everything is sold off and the coins counted up, the party finds themselves with 670.34 gold to divide among the group.
Gilly recalls that the Man-at-Arms was to get a 10% cut of that for services rendered, according to the terms agreed upon, and that someone will have to deliver 67 gold and 3 copper. Knowing how shrewdly the two men at the Trading Post dealt with the halfling during negotiations last time, she has no doubt they'll be sure not to overlook the three copper pieces, leaving the group with 603.31 gold to split up between the remaining six party members.

By the time the loot has been sold and the coin handed out it’s around 10am. The party is soaked to the bone, and likely still has purchases to be made and individual errands to be run. The dwarf had mentioned buying a couple axes for the doors below the Storage Room. There is consideration as to whether to add more hirelings to the group, and hopefully the Church has some potions to sell the cleric. Eltrezar has some outstanding orders to pick up in the village, though none today, most likely.
OOC:
A few questions:
1. How would you like to divide up the remaining 603.31 gold? XP has already been awarded; this is simply for purposes of carrying loot.
2. Who would like to run personal errands?
3. Is the group heading out right away this evening, or are you staying at the inn for a day or a few days to take care of other matters?

KCC

Sep 26, 2021 11:34 pm
OOC:
1: I wonder could we keep the gold in our lock box at the inn, to save us having to carry less back next time with encumbrance!
2: Gilly has no special errand that I could think of!
3: I have no money put in for potions and such, and so I’ll happily stay if people want to wait for their purchases to be ready before we head out! Equally happy to leave after a rest at the inn.
Sep 27, 2021 1:59 am
OOC:

1: I have no head for math, but it seems like we promised 10% to the Man-at-Arms, and we can probably just split the rest evenly. Eltrezar will be storing his share back in the lockbox or the bank, whichever he had already stored money in.
2: Eltrezar will be heading to the Druid to talk about potions, and will be looking at the tailor-shop longingly.
3: Eltrezar would likely want to stay the evening in town, to get some good food and ale, heading out in the morning. We need to warm up first at the very least.
Last edited September 27, 2021 2:00 am
Sep 27, 2021 4:26 am
OOC:
I agree with the others. Bors will look for a blacksmith to get his current sword cleaned up as he found it in the ruins so is probably not in the best condition.
Sep 27, 2021 1:57 pm
OOC:
We should definitely grab another hireling or two. I actually liked the silent Man-at-Arms, and he was fairly competent with a bow. Maybe him and another frontline warrior if we can find one?
Sep 27, 2021 5:13 pm
OOC:
Yes, we pay MaA his 10% and split the rest, Mal will leave hers (less 10%) at the inn then go to the church to tithe and check on heal potions. I definitely want to hire at least one retainer, two if the group thinks best.
Sep 27, 2021 5:32 pm
OOC:
So do we want to rehire the Man-at-Arms? Or look for someone else? And do we want one or two hirelings? Two is safe, but one means we'll get more XP.
Sep 27, 2021 6:25 pm
OOC:
More XP is good, but only useful if we live to collect it. We fought an ogre and survived by pure luck. My vote is for two retainers and definitely the MaA since we know we can trust him.
Sep 27, 2021 6:37 pm
OOC:
So right off the bat, it sounds like the consensus is pay the 10% fee for the Man-at-Arms and split the rest evenly. That leaves each PC with 100.55 gold (I always just turn all your coins into gold pieces as best as I can. For the decimals, the digit in the tens place are silver pieces, and the ones place is copper pieces. It's easier for me to math out since I have to do the bookkeeping, and I'm not interested in messing around with stupid, heavy piles of random coins for each PC.

This is what I have for gold for each PC after this last haul, including any gold stored at the inn, in saddlebags, or on your person...
This is how much you each carry in one way or another:
Gilly: 292.94 gold
Eltrezar: 255.74 gold
Maloria: 120.44 gold
Bors: 109.55 gold
Norris: 110.55 gold
Personally, I would consider converting this to either some jewels/gems/jewelry, or consider letting the money changer store it. At this point, even turning all the treasure you carry into gold for bookkeeping purposes, the weight you're beginning to carry in gold coins is going to become a serious issue. Even your saddlebags can only store so much.

KCC says:
OOC:
1: I wonder could we keep the gold in our lock box at the inn, to save us having to carry less back next time with encumbrance!
3: I have no money put in for potions and such, and so I’ll happily stay if people want to wait for their purchases to be ready before we head out! Equally happy to leave after a rest at the inn.
OOC:
1. This would have occurred before Gilly joined the party, but when the original party first arrived in Hommlet they looked into where to store their coin, so as to not get themselves over encumbered. The inn does have a strong box, but it comes with a number of stipulations. You have to be a guest, currently renting a room at the inn to store valuables there (a least one PC *ahem* Eltrezar, is already flirting with this rule, considering he didn't secure a room before leaving town this last trip out). The innkeeper will not store more that 1000 gold per guest at the inn. The valuables can only be stored for 1 week at most.
Basically, holding on to lots of guests' valuables puts his inn at risk of being attacked by bandits and other no-gooders, which he obviously would like to avoid. The innkeeper would much prefer you store your valuables with the moneychanger, Nira Melub. Melubb can convert coins into other medium of equal value (for a 10% fee of course). He can make jewelry as well. He also will straight up store your treasure in his vault at no cost, but charges a 10% fee for any withdrawls you make.
I believe general consensus was 10% was too great a fee to pay, especially when everyone was pretty broke at the time, and so far everyone's been carrying their coin in their saddlebags for the most part, but that's about to get problematic as you gather more treasure, and Melubb is not flexible on the withdrawal fees. As DM, I will be continuing to penalize players for encumbrance if you're dragging too much coin around, so you guys should probably get this sorted out some way, before you find yourself in the moathouse dungeon broke because you had to dump your coin or else be too weighed down to walk or fight.
3. You currently have 190 gold in your pony's saddlebags, according to my spreadsheet, and 2.39 in your pocket. Add to it the 100.55 from this last haul and you're up to 292.94 gold. That should set you up for any shopping you need to get sorted out.
cowleyc says:
OOC:
1. Eltrezar will be storing his share back in the lockbox or the bank, whichever he had already stored money in.
2: Eltrezar will be heading to the Druid to talk about potions, and will be looking at the tailor-shop longingly.
OOC:
1. Eltrezar currently has 155.19GP in the innkeepers strongbox. Again. That's been sitting there for two days now, despite the innkeeper not recieving payment for two days' room rental. The not abiding by the inn's policies on storing your valuables is going to put you on the wrong foot with Ostler, innkeeper and sergeant of the village's militia. Not having a roof to sleep under form time to time could be a problem if you burn bridges with him. I have a hard time believing that he's just gonna let you walk in and dump more gold in his strongbox and walk out again. In fact, he's probably wondering why a non-paying guest still has their crap in his lockbox.
2. The druid's potions will not be ready for pickup until at east the next day.
OOC:
So far, I'm getting the feeling that the Man-at-Arms is a definite possibility the group is considering, if only for his for ranged capabilities. If you want a melee guy as well, Elmo, drunk as he seems, has shown he can handle pretty well himself in a fight using his battleaxe, slow as that weapon may be. Elmo is expected to return to hommlet in around two days (Day 8, by my notes; you're on Day 6), if you want to wait that long. It's only two days, so how much can a dungeon fill up in that short amount of time, hmm? And it would probably give you a chance to see how the healing potions are coming, and Eltrezar a chance to wait for his potions tomorrow, and he can't place another order until, at the earliest, the day after that. And his robes will be ready on Day 9

Just some food for thought.
Sep 27, 2021 6:46 pm
OOC:
So if Mal has 120gp on her then she will probably just head to the church and see about heal potions.
Sep 28, 2021 3:18 pm
Eltrezar immediately heads for the Inn, having provided valuable assistance to his group in selling their treasures. In his excitement in the adventure to be had, he had forgotten to tend to the innkeeper's needs and rules! He offers to pay for an extended stay, as well as backpay for the days he had used the lockbox without actually being present. After all, it was a paltry sum compared to what the group had found in the moathouse.

Bathing and attempting to dry his clothes took some time, but he was eventually ready to head to the druid's residence. He takes a moment to feed Isolde, who had been waiting quite impatiently in the stables, before going on his way. Knocking at the door, he gathered a few gold coins in preparation to donate in full view of Ashstaff.
Sep 28, 2021 7:56 pm
@dominion451:

OOC:
I’m assuming Mal is the only one headed to the church for the time being. I’m going to make another assumption that anything of importance to the party that occurs on this excursion would be shared with the group by Mal when she rejoins them later, so I’ll just make this open for all to see instead of a private note, and if we decide that there’s anything Mal wouldn’t mention later, we can retcon it and make a rule about no metagaming off of said information. Fair?
Maloria heads to the Church of St. Cuthbert. Like every other time she’s been here she’s expected to wait in the room that serves as the Study and Audience Chamber. Like clockwork, after being offered a seat on the hard wooden benches, Calmert excuses himself. At this point his eyes barely flicker to the donation box as leaves for a short moment; he knows you both know the score by now.

After a few moments, just enough to allow for Maloria to take care of anything she might find *ahem prudent, he returns to the room and turns a chair around to sit before her.
"Acolyte Stoneforge! I had heard you had set out yesterday to revisit the ruins outside of the village, and if the birds that chirp their silly rumors sing true, you've brought back some folks in dire straights, though word has only recently arrived so who knows. You must tell me everything! Also, I must say, I am relieved to see you’ve returned in one piece yourself. Happier still to see I am not being asked to heal or perform last rights on any of your companions this time! Maybe things are getting sorted out then? In any case, how may I be of assistance to you?"

Assuming that Mal gets to the point and says she’s looking to purchase some more healing potions the lesser priest’s face falls a bit. "I am afraid they will not be ready until tomorrow morning, last I heard from our acolyte who brews for the church. I promised I would have some set aside for you then if you’d like, and I intend to keep my word, but I must say, I have some concerns relevant to the matter at hand and I feel compelled to share them with you. You see…"

Calmert then begins to express his concerns. It appears that the church has seen an influx of "accidents" of late, especially within the last week or two. These aren’t occurrences that would generally draw suspicions by themselves, being incidents that would seem entirely random and easy to disregard as being part of the dangerous folks of this time and place sometimes encounter relative to their victim’s circumstances, but in whole the numbers have been concerning: A farmer’s son was kicked in the head by a mule in the last week or so, while another of his daughters was charged by a particularly aggressive bull while retrieving milk buckets to churn to butter. The stonemason recently injured an eye when a chisel mushroomed and a flake broke off when struck with a hammer. A woman had a particularly hard labor which nearly killed her and her newborn infant, though everything seemed to be going well beforehand.
Not to mention the rash of accidents happening to laborers working on the new castle being built... A number of incidents have injured those digging and laying the mortar foundations of the walls that will surround the structure, and a particularly nasty bout of what appears to be food poisoning recently occurred in their camp one recent evening that resulted in a number of workers needing help.
In and of themselves, none of these "accidents" would seem out of the ordinary, as life in this world can be dangerous indeed, but with so many happening all at once, Calmert seems concerned. The efforts that he and the other clergy are putting forth to constantly keep healed those in need have begun taxing their spellcasting capabilities and pressure has been put on the one acolyte that brews the potions. Normally, one acolyte is enough, because the clergy can offset any need for potions by simply casting their divine magic. But this strange wave of a series of seemingly unrelated unfortunate events is becoming difficult to manage, to the point that the potion production has suffered, and frankly, selling all of the stores of potions to Mal alone so she can investigate the ruins adds to that hardship.
At the same time, Calmert can’t help but wonder if perhaps the recent events might be related to more activity and attention those ruins have been drawing to themselves, and might they have something to do with the evil luck that the village has suddenly begun to experience? Perhaps Maloria’s work in exploring these ruins may be what the church needs most in the long run. Therefore he would like to present a proposition to Maloria:

Calmert doesn’t foresee, with the needs of the community to be considered, how his acolyte can continue to provide for Maloria the number of potions she would request in the timeframe he originally anticipated, which was around 3-4 potions (give or take 2 or so) per seven or so days. Instead he suspects he might have to tighten this down to only having that many available for her every tenday.

"An alchemist is a fairly expensive cost for the church, I am sure you can imagine, he says. However, if the church was able to bring in a skilled specialist, say from Verbobonc, to assist with the chemistry side of our brewing endeavors, allowing our acolyte to focus on the divine end of things, I believe we may be able to double our output and at half the cost to the church. This of course would mean we could set aside twice as many potions for you and your companions, and I would of course only have charge you half the cost, even taking in consideration the discount we allow you now.
"Do you think you and your companions might be interested in such a prospect? If so I can begin making arrangements as soon as possible, and we could front the initial costs through donations already given to the church. We would of course ask that you and your companions fulfill your end of the bargain at the end of the month."
OOC:
In other words, Calmert is stating that a strange spell of bad luck seems to be hovering over the village and the availability of healing potions is becoming more scarce as the clergy's spellcasting is exhausted . Rather than finding 1d6 potions available for purchase at a cost of 40g/ea every seven days, the church may only be able to provide 1d6 every tenday. However if the group would be interested in putting forth 1000g/month, an alchemist can be brought in from Verbobonc that would ensure that Maloria could purchase 2d6 potions every tenday at a cost of 20g/ea The availibility would still be once every tenday, but she might get twice as many for half the price each time.
Calmert can front the initial costs immediately using donations collected by the church, but the party would need to reimburse the church the 1000gp at the end of each month. Considering the value of treasure the group has hauled out of there so far in just the last few days alone, this seems doable, assuming the gold keeps pouring forth from those ruins… That 1000g price would have to be paid on the 30th of each month; today is currently the 15th of Eleint.
Sep 29, 2021 3:17 am
OOC:
Oof, 1000 bux a month? Doesn't seem worth it to me but Mal will run it by the group.
Mal explains what has happened in the ruins to the Priest and mentions the flaming eye mentioned by the ogre. She goes on to say that she believes some sort of dark cult is operating out of the ruins and evidences the eye, the torture chamber, and the undead. She talks about what was said by the prisoners regarding their capture and captors. She thanks the Priest for whatever potions he is able to provide upon the morrow and says she will talk to her companions aas to wether they will be able to pay for the alchemist. Once the conversation is over, Mal will tithe 20gp and bid the Priest farewell for now. After returning to the inn, Mal will pay for a room for the night and order food and ale and regroup with the others, sharing what was said.

KCC

Sep 29, 2021 12:23 pm
Gilly gathers up a few coins, and sets them aside in a small pouch. When she sees Maloria head off for the church, she too sets out on her own endeavor. Having been the one to hire the man, it only seemed right that she would be the one to pay him. In fact, she was surprised that he had parted ways with them without a coin crossing hands. Though I suppose he knew where to find the group in town. Nevertheless, she sets off towards to storefront where she first recruited his services.

When she arrives, she slinks in among the items for sale, and tosses him the coin pouch, before nodding to the man. She waits to see for any response!
Sep 30, 2021 3:11 am
@cowleyc: The wizard makes his way to Jaroo Ashstaff's grove and knocks on the door. There's no response, and Eltrezar tries a couple more times, but as the minutes crawl past, his knocking continues to remain unheeded. He hears no sounds coming from within.

@dominion451: Calmert's facial expressions seem to register a combination of concern and interest in Mal's description of the events that have taken place, especially after mention of the possible cult and the "eye". He says he will look into the matter and see if he can put anything together and get back to her, but should he come up empty, any further information she can share would be of great service. He thanks her for the tithe and sees her out. A sparse private room on the upper floor at the inn tonight costs 1 gold, and a plain dinner another 5 silver.
OOC:
(I have deducted 22.5 gold from Mal's inventory)


@KCC: Gilly enters the Trading Post in an attempt to hand off the Man-at-Arm's cut of the loot to him, but the store is completely empty. As she stands around waiting for someone to show up and attend to her, from the front door coming from the stables, the shop's groom enters. At first he doesn't notice her, the grubby filth-encrusted index finger of his right hand digging enthusiastically in his right nostril as he walks past, but suddenly he glances over, makes a double take, and quickly withdraws his finger when realizing he's not alone. A long two or three inch string of mucus follows his extracted finger which he wipes on his trousers, and his face flushes red. "Er... Are you being helped, kid?"

KCC

Sep 30, 2021 1:06 pm
Gilly rolls her eyes. The long legs always churn out the same old spiel. She decides that she won’t even bother correcting this one this time.

"This is for the quiet one. Where is he?" she says, as she jingles the coin purse impatiently.
Sep 30, 2021 3:40 pm
Hrmph! "Perhaps I will try again later, but it is more likely he is quite busy. Us masters of the mystical energies often are," Eltrezar grumbles as he deposits a single gold coin into the donations box and walks away. He heads to the general store in hopes of catching up with Gilly and helping pick out new mercenaries.
Sep 30, 2021 11:04 pm
@KCC:
The groom looks blankly at the halfling for a moment as if she's speaking a different language, before a light of recognition suddenly crosses his pimply face and he nods. "Uh huh..." hes says quietly, and puts up a finger, indicating that Gilly should hold on a moment while he goes and looks for the Man-at-Arms.
The groom leaves the through the door he just came through and Gilly is left alone for a moment in the shop. Preoccupied with arranging for a hireling last time she was here, and paying attention to her companions search for suitable mounts the time before that, this is the first time she's been left a lone a moment to examine the wares and get a good look at the layout of the place. There's the front doors she came in through facing southeast (east on map) and another side door facing west (southwest arrow on map) to the right of the front door is another room curtained off:
https://i.imgur.com/RZaeVWw.png
1. Clothing and Packs
2. Footwear, Gloves, Belts
3. Hand Tools
4. Lighting Equipment
5. Food and Herbs
6. Ropes, Chains. and Dungeoneering Gear; Writing Materials an Religious Items
7. Polearms and Shields
8. Other Weapons, Missiles, and associated gear
9. Armor ad Helmets
10. Tack, Harness, Wheelbarrows, Dungeon Carts


As Gilly quietly walks around the shop browsing the items for sale, she hears two separate voices speaking quietly from the room just right of the Trading Posts front door, obscured by a heavy curtain. From where she stands in the main area of the shop she can't make out exactly what's being said, but she can tell that the voices she hears are certainly spoken more quietly than a normal indoor speaking voice would entail. Whomever is in this side room and whateveratever is being discussed, it is certainly not for just anyone's ears to listen in on.
The clandestine tone the voices seem to put on begins to arouse the halflings natural curiosity. Perhaps if she were to try and sneak closer to the curtained off area she could make out more clearly what is being discussed, she thinks, followed immediately by the acknowledgement that there's no reason to necessarily believe that the conversation should be any of her business. And peraps if she were to sneak closer to try and make it her business she steps on a loose floorboard and give herself away, looking like a fool to whomever is alerted...
OOC:
If Gilly would like to feed appease her curiosity and try and sneak over to the curtained off area for a snoop, let me know and I'll make a secret roll for the halfling. This would definitely be a DM's roll. If she would rather play it safe let me know and we'll continue on.
@cowleyc:
Eltrezar waits a moment, and after coming to the conclusion that the druid is probably busy, he decides to drop a coin in Jaroo's donation box he begins to make his way to the Trading Post. It will take a few minutes to get there so he takes in the sights of village life while he walks..
OOC:
Eltrezar will not arrive at the Trading Post quite yet, but he's on his way.

Rolls

Gilly Wisdom roll - (1d20)

KCC

Sep 30, 2021 11:52 pm
OOC:
Gilly will meander her way to the curtain, yes. She’ll grab something from one of the tables on the way over to examine thoroughly, should she get caught! A flawless cover story!
Oct 1, 2021 1:42 am
Gilly, lifts a ridiculously oversized polearm off the table nearest her and approaches the curtained area trying her best to remain silent. She hears two voices. One a deep, low baritone, the words too quiet to make out. Then the other speaks. It's a raspy sounding voice that Gilly recognises as belonging to the taller of the two Trading Post owners..She thinks she recalls his name being Gremag.
"Keeping an ogre was a poor calculation on their part. Rannos and I both said as much to each other. I must say I'm surp--" His words suddenly cut off as if he's been interrupted, and the room beyond is silent for a second or two before Gilly hears a chair slide across the floor and footsteps begin walking towards the doorway the halfling lurks beside.
Then the front door of the Trading Post opens and Eltrezar comes noisily barging into the room, slamming the door behind him with a loud bang, cutting the relatively silent tension her senses were attuned to, and Gilly can't help but think of Kramer the Cosmic, a comedic wizard character in a series of plays that run in her village known for grand, buffonlike entrances every time the character enters a scene from stage right.
As the Magic-User obliviously saunters into the room, the curtain is suddenly pulled to the side, and Gramag looks intensely down at Gilly, a piercing, knowing scowl in his brown-colored eyes...

https://i.imgur.com/J5EucjR.png

Rolls

Secret Roll

Secret Roll

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